The second psalm, all of the
chapter. 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. 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 sore displeasure. Yet have I set my king upon my
holy hill Zion. I will declare the decree. The
Lord has said unto me, Thou art my son, this day have I begotten
thee. Ask of me, and I'll 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. 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 the Lord. Now look again at the second
and the third verse. The kings of the earth set themselves,
and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against
His anointed. Let us break their bands asunder
and cast away their cords from us. Now, if the subject that
we have taken this morning, the war on Jesus, seems to puzzle
you, the thought of a war and that against the Most Holy and
the Most High God, then remember, that not all wars are fought
with mighty bombs and blazing cannons and guns and swords and
foot soldiers and invading and that sort of thing. Not all wars
are nation against nation. Not all wars are directly between
men and men. For example, and just let me
give this in passing as an example, we have seen in our lifetime,
our government has declared several wars, wars, wars, quote unquote,
for they're not guns and planes and bombs and such like. First of all, there came the
war on poverty. Millions and billions were spent
to eradicate the war on poverty. There came the great society
and yet nothing was improved. Then came the war on drugs. Billions and billions were spent
in a war on drugs, and yet about all it became was a job program
for judges and lawyers and police, and some of them corrupted by
the power of drugs and big money. Now we're in the midst of a war
on illiteracy. Billions and billions are being
spent on what is called no child left behind, and yet Education
is falling further and further into a worse state than ever. But our subject this morning
is a different war. It is a war waged against the
anointed one God. We'll use our first text here
in the second psalm which will then take us to the like passage
in Acts chapter 4 and verse 25 through verse 28. where this very same text is
applied by Peter and John and the other apostles and company
of disciples concerning those who were gathered together against
our God and against his anointed. In Acts verse 26 and verse 27,
it says there, against the holy child Jesus whom thou hast anointed. But first of all, we consider
the second psalm and what is here. And the first question
for us to raise is whether this psalm is strictly and absolutely
Davidic. That is, whether this psalm is
one concerning only David, and his kingdom, and his kingship,
and his reign, and those that rose up in opposition against
him, and yet, notwithstanding that opposition, God set him
upon the throne, made him a king over the kingdom of Israel. Or
we ask the question, is this psalm also messianic? That is, is it a psalm that has
to do with our Savior? We've already mentioned that
Acts 4, 25, and verse 28 applies this passage of Scripture to
what was done to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ in His death. Now, we can see that this passage
in Psalm 2 falls among those Old Testament scriptures that
are worthy of a twofold or a double application. We might call it
a primary application and a secondary application. Or, as a man named
Loth, L-O-W-T-H is the spelling, expressed it this way, literal
and allegorical. There is literal and there are
allegorical things that are here. As to the literal David and as
to the spiritual David, even our blessed Savior. And you look
at the 89th Psalm, and I think you'll see there also are double
application, primary and secondary. But first we take a look at the
literal message of the 2nd Psalm as it concerns David. That God
rejected Saul, He appointed or chose David, and made him the
king. He put him up on the throne of
Israel in spite of all the opposition that he faced from his enemy,
those that opposed him, yet did God set him up on the throne
and raise him up and make him to be king. He put him up on
that throne in spite of all that was done to hinder or to oppose
it. I like a footnote that I ran
across in the New Geneva Study Bible this week in researching
to the effect that the second psalm here that we have read
integrates the two kingships, the human and the divine, in
these verses of Scripture. They are here as type, David,
and anti-type. the Lord Jesus Christ, that the
experiences and the kingship of David was typical of his divine
counterpart, the blessed Lord and Savior. And both of them,
by the way, were chosen and anointed by God to be a king over a kingdom. Both of them also met with very
strong opposition. And yet God made kings out of
both of them. God brought both of them to a
kingdom, a throne, made them king. He frustrated, he overthrew
all of the opposition that came against them. Then it's said
here that God actually laughs at the feeble attempts of those
who join in confederate against God's anointed king, 1st David,
and then the Lord Jesus Christ. And so, as is the case yonder
in the 89th Psalm, there are things here that do apply to
David, and there are things that also apply unto Christ. While on the other hand, reading
this psalm, we find that there are things that are here that
are only, only applicable unto the Messiah. Some things here
only can be said of God's anointed one of the Messiah. For example,
Look in verse 7 quickly. Thou art my son, this day have
I begotten thee. Then look at verse 8. The promise
of the heathen as subjects and a universal dominion was never
promised unto David but unto our Messiah. Notice in verse
12 again where again He is called the Son, the Son of the Living
God. We dare not miss the times that
this psalm is quoted in the New Testament and is applied to Christ
as God's Messiah. in that God calls him My Beloved
Son, Matthew 3.17 and 17 and verse 5 also of Matthew. And
there in Acts 4.25-28 that Psalms 2.1-2 had their fulfillment in the
complete confederacy and hostility of Israel and of the Gentiles
against Jesus, the Holy Servant of the Most High God. And in
Acts 13 and verse 33, Paul quotes there from this second psalm
and applies it unto Christ. He applies what he quotes unto
the Lord taken from the second Psalm. Now concerning the subject
that is before our eye and mine here this morning, and that is
the war on Jesus. Here's a quote from C. H. Spurgeon that I took out of his
Psalms, work on Psalms, he said, and I'm quoting, we have in the
first three verses of the second Psalm a description of the hatred
of the human nature against the Christ of God." Here we have
a description of that hatred that is in humanity against the
Christ of God that he has sent into the world. We see something
else. We see that this animosity is
not confined to one people or one place or one time, but we
see that the animosity is spread. We see it crossing all social
and all ethnic and all national boundaries, this animosity and
enmity against the Lord's anointed. Notice two particulars here as
we move along. Number one, the participation
in the conspiracy, or I should have said participators in the
conspiracy. Notice the heathen, the people,
the kings of the earth, and the rulers. And over in Acts 4, verse
27, some of them are named by name. Herod, Pontius Pilate,
the Gentiles, and the people of Israel are named in this conspiracy
or war against the Lord. Also, the second thing, not only
do we notice the participator, but let's look at their common
aim. It is set out in Psalms 2 and
verse 3. What's the aim of this war against
the Lord's anointing? It is to free themselves of all
restraint and cast away every unwarranted inhibition that might
be upon them. Cast away any and every prohibition. They desire, as in Jeremiah chapter
5 and verse 5, to break the yoke and burst the bounds. That's
their aim and their goal and they desire. They regard even
righteous laws. even the righteous laws of Almighty
God to be a heavy and an unjust yoke upon them and about their
neck. Not only the laws of King David,
but the holy ordinances of the great God and of His anointed. His righteous laws and statues
they regard as bondage. Gilro, such do regard God's laws
and ordinances and truths as if they were heavy chains and
iron shackles. That's how the wicked look at
the things of God. And even though God's law is
holy, it is just, it is good, said Paul in Romans chapter 7
and verse 12, And though Christ's yoke is easy and His burden is
light, according to His words in Matthew 11 and verse 30, to
the wicked they are heavy chains which usurp their liberty. and their freedom, which they
strongly resent as being an infringement upon their personal liberty and
their right to do exactly as they please. How they hate those
thou shalt nots that are set forth in God's law and in His
Word. Thou shalt not. in their hearing,
rackles them and causes them to ruffle up against God. They
chafe and they jump and they kick and they pitch and they
buck like a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke when God's laws and
statutes are brought upon them. Jeremiah 31, And verse 18, a
bulla unaccustomed to the yoke and wearing the yoke. An old
timer by the name of John Trapp, well described such as we read
about here in our text this morning, that they are resolved to run
riot. and lawless. And he said, and
I'm quoting, therefore they slander the sweet laws of Christ as being
bonds and thick cords which are to them signs of slavery, unquote. That's how the wicked look upon
the things of God, the scripture, the laws of God, and such like. Now, do we need to reemphasize
that these are not the feelings and the sentiments of the righteous. Such words proceed out of the
mouth of unregenerate and of rebels and of enemies of God. And even if they do not put these
into open words publicly, declaring them, yet these are the sentiments
of their heart and of their mind. If they do not openly proclaim
it from the housetop, yet it is the thought and the sentiment
of their heart and their mind. And how do we know that? Because
it was once the sentiment and the thought of our very own wicked
heart. Remember what Paul said in Romans
chapter 8 and verse 7, The carnal mind is enmity against God, for
it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can it
be. This is very strong language
indeed, but it expresses the strong hostility in the unregenerate
against God, actuated by the mind of the flesh. Being unregenerate,
having not the Spirit of God. The object therefore of their
enmity is the law of God, which law of God is actually a reflection
of the holy character of God Himself. And the law chafes those
who live under the power, the depraved power of the flesh. John Murray wrote on Romans 8,
And verse 17, quote, enmity toward God is the actuating principle
of the mind of the flesh, unquote. And non-subjection to the divine
law is the way in which this enmity against God manifests
itself, is evident, and is brought to light. Let's go again to the
2nd Psalm, that like Ruth we might glean here, in every corner
of the field missing not so much as a grain. In verse 1, the people
imagine a vain thing. Verse 2, Having imagined a vain
thing, they take counsel together. In verse 1, the word imagine
is in the margin like meditate. They think upon it. They mull.
They cogitate. They meditate. They turn it over
in their mind, and some versions you'll find that it is plot or
devise. They plot or devise in their
mind. Let's see the opening word of
the psalm in verse 1. Why? This is written by one from
the standpoint of one who is actually acquainted with and
is at the same time a servant of Jehovah. The writer of this
is one who delights in the law of God and in the law of the
Lord so that the why that opens up the psalm is an expression
of astonishment, amazement, almost unbelief. Why? For what? To what end? Wherefore? The astonishment is understood
by what is said in the end of verse 1. It is a vain thing that
the wicked have plotted, meditated on, or have devised. The psalmist
sees their scheme as an empty delusion. He is convinced that
it will end up in failure, that it is a sure failing scheme on
their part. No more can they break God's
rule over them than Nimrod and his cohorts could build a tower
whose top actually reached into the heaven. Now this is seen
by the response of God to their devisings in the fourth verse. He that sitteth in the heavens
shall laugh. You might also remember Psalm
37 and verse 13, Proverbs chapter 1 and verse 26, I will laugh
when your calamity come up. The Lord shall have them in derision. He shall mock them. He shall
scoff at them. He shall deride them. He shall
laugh them to scorn when they have brought themselves under
the judgment and the ruin of God. Notice the fifth verse of
our psalm. God will rebuke them in His wrath
and vex them in His sore displeasure. And again, let us not lose sight
of the ones who are the objects of their animosity. It is the
Lord Jehovah and His Anointed, which was not just King David,
who was a type of Messiah King that was to be sent into the
world. Now, let's move our focus to
the New Testament in the passage there in Acts chapter 4 verse
25 through verse 28, where we find here in the context that
the disciples show that the ultimate subject of the second psalm was
the Christ of God, his anointed. I'll say it again in Acts 4.26,
against the Lord and against his Christ. But look at verse
27. against thy holy child Jesus
whom thou hast anointed." Now, the word child is not confined
here to a very young child or a babe or an infant. The word is over 20 times at
least in the New Testament. And most often, or a lot of the
time, is translated in our English by the word servant. Also, it
is translated child and children. It is translated maid and maiden. It is translated menservant. It is translated son. It is translated
young man in the New Testament. In fact, It looks to be the same
word in Acts 4.25 as they have in thy servant David. So let's settle the description
used to depict the Lord Jesus Christ and to show the heinous
nature and crime against him. In Psalm chapter 2 and in Acts
chapter 4 and other places, He is designated as the Lord's anointed. Anointed. Put that in our mind
and keep it. For example, in Luke 4.18, the
Lord read that passage from Isaiah, that He hath anointed me, and
He said unto them this day, Is this fulfilled right here in
your hearing? In Psalm 2-2, His anointing. In Acts 10-38, God anointed Jesus
of Nazareth. Anointing amounted to an appointment
or a consecration to a special office or service that God had
instituted or called them to. the more sacred the anointing
when God is the anointing one and he has anointed the Lord
Jesus Christ. For example, we read something
about the Lord's anointed, very interesting, way back over in
1 Samuel, how how reluctant David was to harm Saul. You remember that? Saul was a
very wicked man. He was an enemy of David. He
was a detriment to the nation, the government, and to the people.
But David was reluctant to put his hand against Saul in any
way to harm him. Why? Well, because in 1 Samuel
chapter 15 and verse 17, the Lord anointed him, that is Saul,
to be king over Israel. 1 Samuel chapter 24, David stayed
his men from harming Saul. When God had made a deep sleep
fall upon Saul, they could have killed him. And his soldiers
said, let us thrust him through with a spear. And David stayed
his men from harming Saul because In v. 6 and v. 10 of that chapter,
he is the anointed of the Lord. 1 Samuel 26, v. 9, David said to Abishai, Destroy
him not, for who can stretch forth his hand against the Lord's
anointed and be guiltless? And all the time he's talking
about, O wicked king Saul. But a confederation of wicked,
wicked persons and ungodly men and leaders did conspire against
the Lord's anointed to put Him to death, to oppose His kingship,
that He should never reign over them. Now, let's go to the New
Testament and pick up again this war on Jesus. It is predicted
in the second Psalm, has been carried on and is still being
carried on. I would point out that one of
the first New Testament attempts, or let me say, after the Lord
was incarnate and born of Mary, One of the first attempts against
the holy child Jesus is recorded in the first gospel, Matthew,
and the second chapter. And the culprit there, as we
know, was King Herod. When Herod heard that one had
been born that was to be the king of the Jew, in the second
verse, and here, verse 3, When Herod the king had heard, he
was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him." Why was Herod troubled? Perhaps it was those words, king
of the Jews. One is born king of the Jew that
rattled evil king Herod. Would this king born of the Jew
become a rival to Herod or seek to usurp the throne from Caesar? Herod hatched a plot to locate
the young Lord under the pretense of desiring to worship him. You'll see that in verse 8, Matthew
2. And he would make the magi, make
the wise men, the unwitting accomplices of him in locating the young
child. Herod's true intention is revealed
in Matthew 2 and verse 13. for Herod will seek the young
child to destroy him." That's what Herod had in mind. Being foiled by the providence
of God from finding the one called the King of the Jew, feeling
that he had been betrayed and mocked by the wise men, Herod
in verse 16, proved himself a bloody man because there he ordered
all the children, two years of age and younger, to be destroyed,
to be murdered, to be killed by the sword. all of those in
and around Bethlehem where it was said that He, born King of
the Jew, was to descend. A bloody massacre it was. Verse 17 and 18. even this atrocious
act fulfilled the prophecy of Jeremiah. So it was a fulfillment
of scripture. Thus we see that the war against
Jesus began so soon as he became incarnate in the flesh. While
Yedabab, a king of the earth, Herod by name, stood up against
and took counsel together against the Lord's anointed and set himself
against God's blessed Messiah. Now, me thinks that many of those
who make so much at a certain time of quote, baby
Jesus, unquote, do not care at all for the sovereign Lord who
has power over all flesh, literally. That one who is sovereign and
has authority over all men. He is made Lord and Christ. And this is the emphasis of the
New Testament. But be that as it may, after
the death of Herod, Matthew 2, verse 19, Joseph and Mary being
told that they're dead now that seek the life of the young child,
they come and settle in Nazareth in Galilee, Matthew 2, verse
23. It was there that the Lord grew
up to manhood, living, however, in almost virtual obscurity until
His revealing at about age 30. There is one mention of our Lord
during that interval when He was 12 years old, and you'll
find that one in the second chapter of Luke, verse 40 through verse
52. However, let's move along. When
the Lord began His public ministry, the Jews, their religious leaders,
very soon took up a religious war against Him, determined that
He be put to death, determined that He must die. Everywhere He went, They contradicted,
and they blasphemed, and they opposed him. They called him
a blasphemer. They called him a gluttonous
man. They said that he was out of his mind. They said that he
was possessed with an unclean spirit, among other things. And on several occasions, they
actually sought to kill him by their own hand, at least twice
by stoning, once by throwing him off of a cliff or of a hill. In desperation, they then, to
secure the death of the Lord, were forced to ally themselves
with the Gentiles and Pilate and the Roman government. which
they so despised, chafing under their yoke. But using the Roman
law and using the Roman power to kill the prince of life, they
conspired. How devious they were in their
war against Christ. I want to point out two things
right now. How devious they were Or consider
two things, if you might. First of all, consider when they
brought Jesus before the Jewish Sanhedrin court. the highest
court in Jewry, the high court of the Jew, there they accused
him of what? There they accused him of blasphemy. They brought him before the court
and said, He's blasphemed. He is making himself equal with
God. Why, he's even said that he can
destroy the temple and build it again in three days, whereby
the high priest declared him guilty of blasphemy and that
he ought to die. This is enough for the Jew. Secondly, they carry him before
Pilate. The charge of blasphemy will
not hold before Pilate. He cares nothing for their religious
squabble and against their religious war. So when they bring him before
Pilate, they accuse the Lord of sedition and insurrection. Therefore, they say, he is a
threat to Caesar and to his government. Luke 23 and verse 2. And again, they think the best
way to gain Pilate's condemnation of him to death is by calling
him a challenger unto Caesar. He made himself the king of the
Jew. Pilate knew, however, that it
was from envy that they had accused Christ and that they had delivered
Christ unto him. Matthew 27 and verse 18, Mark
15 and verse 10, he knew that it was out of enmity and they
prevailed, but however, and he was put unto death. Now consider another aspect of
the war upon Jesus. That is that the war against
him continued even after he was put to death. It began before
he was dead. It continued even after he was
put to death. And the example I bring before
you is the zealot Saul of Tarsus who waged a violent war against
Christianity, the disciples, the church, and the Lord, veining
his animosity against the followers of Christ. First, he consented. unto the death of Stephen, Acts
chapter 8 and verse 1. He breathed out threatenings
and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord in Acts 9 and verse
1. He made havoc of the church in
Acts chapter 8 and verse 3. He persecuted the church and
wasted it, Galatians chapter 1 and verse 13. In his blind
ignorance and zeal, he thought that he ought to do many things
contrary to the name of Jesus, Acts 26 and verse 9, and he did. right up until the time of his
conversion. Yea, when the Lord took him on
the road to Damascus, he was venting his rage against those
that were, quote, of the way, unquote. Saul could not get at
Jesus. personally, or he had been dead,
put in the tomb, resurrected, and raised again to the right
hand of God. He could not get at Jesus directly
and personally, so he did the next best thing, persecuting
and destroying the followers of the Lord Jesus Christ, those
who believed upon them. He would put them to death. who
were guilty of the quote crime of believing upon the Lord Jesus,
to stamp out this way, to stamp it out before it goes any further. And I certify you, brethren,
that this war on Jesus, number one, it continues to this very
day, it is not at an end. There is yet a war upon Jesus. And secondly, that it will continue
so long as the world shall stand and the Word of God and the Gospel
is being preached in this world, age after age, century after
century. Even now, let me point out that
there is a war, a full-fledged war upon the Lord Jesus Christ. Who are they that are the Confederates
in this present-day war? Well, they are the liberal media,
the many Jews, many Muslims, the ACLU, and the worst of all,
apostate reverends. or engaged in this conspiracy
against our Lord and His anointed. There is an escalating war on
Christianity, and yet any war on Christianity is a war against
Christ. Any war against Christ is a war
against God. Any war against Christianity
and the Bible and the church and the gospel is a direct war
against the Lord Jesus Christ as our head. even as an attack
on the preachers who preach the Word of God is an attack upon
the author of that blessed, blessed Word. We are nearing the time,
I think, when all mention of God in Christ Anything Christian
will be banned from the public arena and public places. Any acknowledgment of Christ
out in public will become anathema. The only place that Christ will
be truly lifted up and exalted in his true character will be
inside the walls of small churches that yet stand upon the Word
of our God. Yet many, many may say, look
preacher, you are mistaken. Look at the world. Look at the
mega churches. Thousands and thousands of members
they have. See how many are Christians in
our day and how many profess to love the Lord Jesus Christ. Some will argue, look how many
are turning in our very day unto the Lord Jesus Christ? My answer
to that is that in most cases, it is another Jesus that is being
preached in those places. Another Jesus, like Paul said
in 2 Corinthians 11 and 4, Another gospel, like he said in Galatians
1, 6 and verse 7, another gospel which is not another, not the
true Christ and not the true gospel is that that is being
proclaimed. For example, I heard it recently. Excuse me with the bronchitis.
I heard a talking head. on TV, and a well-known one,
and a prominent one say on TV the other day, quote, Christianity
is not a religion, it is a philosophy, unquote. A few nights later,
I heard that same individual call Jesus a philosopher. He said, well, Jesus was a philosopher. And I heard that chubby lesbian
female on TV declare that the right-wing Christianity, quote,
is more dangerous than the Taliban, unquote. Yes, many have declared
that this is true. The head of Homeland Security
in the United States of America last year said, people who believe
their Bible, go to church all the time, and believe the Bible
is literal may be potential terrorists. Yes, that was said. It was really
said. More and more, I'm hearing the
word dangerous to describe Christianity. It's coming more and more, the
word dangerous. Dangerous. Christianity is dangerous. You know what they mean? The
principles of Christianity will restrict our freedom. They'll
take away our liberty. They want to take away from us
the right to do exactly as we want to do. Then notice something
else. More and more other religions
are favored over Christianity. And I'm going to make a prediction
this morning that the time will soon come when we will see Sharia
law enacted and used in this country aloud in the American
legal system. You say, oh, I don't think that
will ever happen. There are pockets of it already
in America clamoring for it. If you don't think it'll happen,
you ask France and England about this business of Sharia law,
the religious law of the Muslims. That's what Sharia law is. And I'm afraid that it will soon
take root in our legal system. Now, the wicked consider righteousness
a dreadful thing. This is an awful thing. It's
a severe restriction upon them. The law of God they consider
to be a very heavy bondage. The yoke of Christ they despise. They cry with Job chapter 21,
verse 14 and 15. Depart from us, O God. We desire
not the knowledge of Thy way. They say, what is the Almighty
that we should serve Him? What profit is it if we pray
unto Him? And yet, how wretched their end. If God leave them under their
delusion, how wretched will be their end. Now, we have to bring
this to a close by making three applications. Number one, some
opposed David being king, but God established him and established
his throne. Their opposition came to nothing. Secondly, the Jews repudiated
Jesus as King and even put Him unto death and put a seal and
a watch upon His tomb. And yet God raised Him up. He loosed Him. He freed Him.
And He exalted Him unto highest glory. And He made Him Lord and
Christ. And the disciples recognized
Him It recognized in the second psalm that what was done to Jesus
fulfilled that prophecy of David. And thirdly and finally, as for
those making war on Christ, even now He has power over them. He has authority. He has power
over all flesh. And let me take it further. He
has power to save or to damn. John 17, verses 1 and 2. They must remember, he that sitteth
in the heavens will laugh. He will be their judge. The wicked who war against him,
he will meet them in death and bring their works into judgment. God is not mocked. A war against
him is doomed to failure, for he is the almighty God working
toward that purpose that he has formed before the foundation
of the world. This is a war that they cannot
win, a war against Christ. He will triumph against them
and tread underfoot all of his enemies. We must remember that,
those who fight this war.