There you go. God bless you. It's good to see you. It's always good to gather with
God's people and hear the Gospel preached as we just heard. That was outstanding. Anytime Jesus Christ is lifted
up, it's outstanding. It's outstanding. If I just stood
here for five minutes and exalted Jesus Christ, that's enough.
The best five minutes of our lives is to hear Him exalted. Turn to Psalm 2. Psalm 2. There's a hundred and fifty Psalms,
and the first Psalm starts out with a question. Why? Why? Why do the heathen, the nations,
rage, gather tumultuously And the people imagine, and that
word imagine can also mean meditate, plot, plan. But they imagine a vain, an empty
thing. This shows, right from the beginning,
the extent of the fall. the extent of the fall. Why do
the nations, not a few rogue nations, all nations, all nations
on this earth produced by Adam is set against God. There's not one nation on this
earth And I say produced by Adam because there is one nation,
a holy nation, Peter speaks of, that's for God, that believes
on the Lord Jesus Christ, that loves Him. But as far as all
men and women that came from Adam, not one loved Him. Not one. How many billions and
billions of people do you imagine has been born into this world
And not one of them, by nature, loves God, thinks of God, calls
on God, seeks after Him. He said, none seeks after Me.
You would think, you would think that we would be interested in
the One who created us, wouldn't you? You would think that we
would want to... We're supposed to be intelligent
people, aren't we? We weren't born from monkeys. God created
us. You would think we would have
an interest in finding out who our Creator is. Instead, none
seek after God. None. That's astounding to me.
But that's the extent of the fall. We weren't wounded. We are dead. Dead. This shows that the whole world
is against the Lord Jesus Christ. Even those who pretend to be
for Him, they are against Him. All you've got to do is tell
the truth on Him. Just tell the truth on Him. You'll find out,
well, that's not the Jesus Christ I believe. Well, that's the Jesus
Christ of this Bible. You know, Paul said they'll come
preaching another Jesus. Which one do you believe? Which
one do you believe? There's only one in this Bible.
But Satan is so subtle, he sends out others. They preach in his
name, do many mighty works in his name. Fool. Fool people.
But this shows that the whole world is against our Lord. What
do men have to rage about? What do the nations and the heathen
have to rage about? God is holy. What's wrong with
that? What's wrong with holy? God is just. What is wrong with
just? Well, if you're unjust, I reckon
there's probably a lot of wrong with it too. You don't want to
face a just God if you're an unjust person. No, actually you
don't. What's wrong with holy? What's
wrong with just? God is love. That's who He is. God is merciful. God is gracious. God gives us
the air we breathe, the food we eat. What is wrong with that?
What are you raging about? I know. Let me answer it this way. I'm going to give you three answers.
Why do the heathen rage in the people? That's everybody. Imagine a vain thing. First of
all, because the carnal mind, since the fall, the carnal mind
is enmity against God. Every man, every woman born into
this world is at war with God. I heard Henry say one time, he
said, someone said, I've loved God all my life. He said, that's
just too long. That's just too long. You and I have not loved God
all our life. We did not love God until the
love of God was shared abroad in our hearts. A real love for
God is out of response of His love to us. And the measure of
my love to God is my love to you. I don't love you anymore
than I love God. If I love God, that's how I love
you. That's how I love you. The natural
mind is enmity against God, no matter how blessed a man is.
His mind is at war with God. He's at war. Man wants to be
his own God. Until God saves us, we want that
position. We want the position of sovereignty.
We want the position, I'll rule my house, this is my house. Now
God can be sovereign in your house, but leave mine alone. It says over in Psalm 53, the fool said in his heart, no
God, no God for me. No God for me. I'm alright. I
can handle this. No God for me. And then secondly,
man is born dead and trespasses and sins. He is spiritually dead. Dead. Now if you receive a phone call from
someone you know and they say so-and-so died, do you have a
problem understanding that? You don't have a problem understanding
that. He's dead, isn't he? But when
we say a man is spiritually dead, somehow they have a problem understanding
that. It's like, you mean he's barely
alive? I mean, is he barely dead? No,
dead. Look it up in the dictionary.
He's dead. He has no spiritual life. He
cannot communicate with God. He doesn't have the mind to even
think on any level of God. He doesn't even have the mind
to go there. He's dead. Dead in trespasses and sins.
And because of this, he cannot know God. For God is spirit. Man is flesh now. God is light. Man is darkness. God is truth. Man is a liar. His thoughts of
God are wrong. His thoughts of God are wrong. God said, you thought I was altogether
like yourselves. Could you be more wrong than
to think God is like you are? To think God is like me? How
awful. How awful. I couldn't have a
higher thought of myself and a lower thought of God. To think
like that. You thought I was like you. Well,
I'm going to show you. And then thirdly, all men, high
or low, rich or poor, educated or uneducated, despise God's
way of salvation, which is Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ, as we heard,
is God's way. He's not one of the ways. He
is God's way of salvation. He's the only way to God. He
said that. No man comes to the Father but
by me. I am the way, the truth, and
the life. Man despises God's way of salvation. The scripture says that Christ
was despised and rejected of men. That's just amazing. The Creator comes into the world
and the world knows Him not. It has nothing to do with Him.
It ought to go to hell. I understand that. It ought to
go to hell. By God's grace, He's not going
to let some. He's going to save them. And
you're not going to go there. He's going to save them by His
grace. As Todd said, He put away their sins. He put away their
sins. Even, he says here, the kings
of the earth set themselves. They are determined. They are
determined. They have taken a stand against
God. They stood up. They have taken
a stand against God. And the rulers have taken counsel. Can you imagine this? We got
little peons running around and they're going to take a stand
against God Almighty who spoke and the world came into existence.
Who said let there be light and there was light. And a bunch
of nothings going to stop Him, going to hinder Him. That's why he laughs here. We'll
get to this in a minute. It is laughable. As sad as it
is, it's laughable that men think they can put God in check. But the kings of the earth, the
kings of the earth have set themselves, they're absolutely determined
to stand against Him. And the rulers, the religious
leaders, they're the ones who said, we will not have this man
to reign over us. You don't have any say-so in
this matter. You and I don't have any say-so.
We're not going to vote on this. We're not going to take a vote. This matter is already done.
This matter was taken care of before creation. He was set before
creation. We'll get to that in a minute. They set themselves. They were
determined to kill Him. over in Acts it says the kings
of the earth stood up. We see this in the Gospels. But
it hasn't changed. It hasn't changed. If the Lord
Jesus Christ came into this world today like he did then, we'd
still kill him. We'd still kill him if we could. The kings of the earth stood
up and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and
against his Christ. That's what it says in Acts 4.26.
But it also goes on to say that They only did what God determined
to be done. I tell you, sin just really dumbs
you down, doesn't it? I mean, for 6,000 years, look
how stupid, I'm serious, look how stupid Satan is. He's still
trying to dethrone. He's still trying to bring down
the glory of God. 6,000 years and he hasn't learned
that he can't do it. You tell me, sin really dumbs
you down. It really does. But here's what the kings and
the rulers want to do. Here's the whole problem. Here's
the reason for all the tumult. Here's the reason for the rage.
Here's the reason why they wanted to kill him. Let us break their
bands asunder. Let us unite together and take
away the restraints. We don't want any restraints,
do we? A good example when God pulled
back His hand of restraint is Sodom and Gomorrah. That's what we turn into. That's
what we turn into. Let us break their bands asunder
and cast away their cords from us. I was thinking about what this
course could mean, I really don't know what all it means. But let's
take away his laws, let's take away his word, let's just get
him out of the picture. Let's get God out of the picture
and then we can do what we want to do. What it is here is a revolt against
God and this happened in the fall and it's still going on. It hasn't let up and it won't
let up. It will not let us. Let's break their authority. Let's break their control. Man wants the power. And we want
that power until God saves us. Until He brings us to bow at
the feet of the King of Glory. We want that power. We like it
when we walk in the room and people say, where is he? Did
you see he came in the door? Did you see him came in the door?
Like you're somebody. We like that. We like that. We want that kind of... That's
why Satan said to the Lord, fall down and worship me. Recognize
me. Please. It's like you say, please
recognize me. Somebody recognize me. That's
what we want by nature. We have that in us. We want recognition. Instead of giving it to Him. Todd preached that message. That
was given to Christ. You and I have nothing to do
with it. Did you hear what Jesus said to me? And they're all taken
away. And He's the one who took them
away. I didn't take anything away. He did. We want, by nature, what belongs
to Jesus Christ, the Son of God. No restraint. No punishment. That's what we want. We want
no restraints and no punishments. That's what we want. Although we punish, we'll punish
somebody for messing up. But we don't want to be punished.
But listen here. Notice, here's the voice. Here's
the vanity. Listen. The vanity of opposing
God. Verses 4 to 6. The vanity of
opposing God. He that sitteth in the heavens
shall laugh. He's speaking in our language.
Language you and I can understand. The Lord shall have them in derision. Here's God's response to all
this. You know, if all of you were upset at me, and you were
out to get me, I would probably go hide. Because there's too
many of you. There's just too many of you.
God laughs. He's just laughable. Just laughable. He's speaking it like, how foolish!
He's saying it's so foolish to even think this. That we can
stand and oppose God and oppose Christ. His work of redemption,
His glory. How laughable. When men try to
dethrone God. Try to dethrone God. Can you
imagine? They don't even know where He is. Not natural man. They can't find Him. If they
wanted to dethrone Him, they wouldn't know where He is. He's
in heaven. He's in heaven. He's not in Rome. He's in heaven.
On the throne. Heaven is my throne. Earth is my footstool. You and I live on His footstool. And notice God's position. He
sitteth. Like our Lord when that boat
was in a storm and it was being tossed to and fro and the disciples
were freaking out. He's asleep. He's asleep because
first of all, that's what perfect faith does. He perfectly believed
God. That's why you can sleep. You
can sleep when you believe God. It's when we start to doubt that
we lose sleep, we can't go to sleep. You know, I was preaching, not
too long ago, I'm getting off the subject here, but I was preaching
here at home, and I was preaching on Peter. Peter said, that portion
in Matthew, Peter said, Lord, if it's you, bid me to come out
to you. He said, well, come on. And Peter
stepped out of that boat and walked on water. He walked on water. And it says
he saw the wind boisterous and he began to sink. And he said,
Lord, save me. And all the times I've preached
from that, I never saw this and I never really saw the message
there. It was this, and I think it's this. There's one man whose
faith didn't fail and he didn't sink. There's a real man standing
on water who believed God. He's God, yes. But he believed
God, and by faith, he walked right out on that water. Can
I explain all that? No, I'll just tell you about
it. I can't explain it. That's when we start to lose
it when we start trying to explain it. Let me see where I was at. He's sitting at rest, undisturbed. Undisturbed. Heaven, which is
God's throne, is not in turmoil because of man's rebellion. He's never been in turmoil. Not
once has God been exasperated. No, not once. Before God created the first
thing, He took care of everything. As I said, I'll not do anything
He doesn't know about, nothing. And that's how He put away all
my sins because they were all before Him and He put them away.
He put them away. Even before I ever committed
them. Even before I ever committed
them, He put them away. He'll have them in derision.
He'll mock them. Haman, you know, you remember
the story of Mordecai? Haman, boy, he's got a juicy
one going here. He's going, I'm going to build
a gallows and I'm going to make this plot and Mordecai is going
to hang him. I'm going to get rid of that
guy. Guess who got hung on? The guy that built it. God turned that thing around
and Haman got hanged on by his own noose. He did. Jesus Christ was hanging on a
tree. And they thought, we got Him.
Now guess where He's at? He's on the throne. He's on the
throne. And then shall He speak unto
them in His wrath, and vex them in His sore displeasure. When
men have played their games long enough, and have filled up their
iniquity, God will speak. And you know this, all he needs
to do is speak. He doesn't need to send an army
after us. He just speaks. Because here's why, where the
Word of the King is, there's power. Power. Yet, as for me, that's what it
means, as for me, I, God, set my king past tense upon my
holy hill of Zion. I have divinely appointed my
son to be the king and the hill he sits upon and rules and reigns
is the church. You know the most powerful militant
force in this world is not the United States Army. It's the
Church of the Living God. One prophet prays and the sun
stands still. A prophet prays and it doesn't
rain for a few years. Then he prays again and what
happens? It rains. There's nothing on this earth
more powerful than the Lord's church. And that's where He reigns. He reigns through His church.
He rules this world through His church. That's hard to conceive. It's
just hard to conceive. Man's rage cannot stop God's
purpose. None can stop his hand from saying
to him, what are you doing? What are you doing? You know,
the Scripture says He gives no account of any of His matter.
He doesn't answer to me and you. If He wants to take the most
precious thing to me, He's not going to ask me if He can do
it. He's going to do it. He's going to do the wisest thing
for me. And He's not going to ask me
what I think about it. He's not going to ask me. Now the King speaks. And I need
to move on, there's not a clock in here, is there? I will declare the decree. That's
what our Lord did when He came into the world. I will declare the decree. The
Lord, capital L-O-R-D, the self-existing One, has said to me, Thou art
my Son, this day have I begotten thee. I will declare the decree. Tell them, you're my son. Tell them the story of redemption. Tell it to them. Christ said,
as I hear, I speak. As I hear, the words I speak
are not mine. They are the decrees of God.
When our Lord spoke, He spoke the decrees of God. Christ knows
the eternal counsel of God because He was there. I was by Him as
one brought up with Him. He was there when the decree
came down. And it came down to Him. It came
down to Him. Thou art my son. You're not a
son of Adam. Son of God. We know you. Oh, we know you.
You're the carpenter's son. They didn't know Him, did they?
You're God's son. Peter, who do men say I am? Well, some think you're Elijah,
some think you're Jeremiah, some... they're all confused. They don't
know who you are. Who do you say I am? Thou art
to Christ, the Son of the living God. Now, Peter, you're teachable. You're not teachable until you
get that right. Until God burns into your heart. That Jesus Christ is God manifest
in the flesh. That He is God's Son, the second
person of the Trinity. You're not teachable. You're
not teachable. Now you may believe some facts,
but you can't learn. You don't really learn doctrine
until you learn Christ. He didn't say, take my yoke upon
you and learn the doctrines about me. He said, take my yoke upon
you and learn of me. And if you learn of Christ, you'll
learn right doctrine. You cannot learn wrong doctrine
if you learn Christ. You can't do it. The decree that was settled before
the foundation of the world is what He speaks and nothing else. He's not babbling. We babble. There's a lot of talk that I
do, I could just shut up and be better off. But our Lord,
when He spoke, He spoke the decrees of God. Every time. Nothing ever flowed out of his
mouth but wisdom and truth and the purpose of God. This matter of the rule and reign
of Jesus Christ, the God-man mediator, was settled long, long
ago. Now bow to it. That's what he's
going to say at the end of it. Ask me, he speaks here to the
Lord Jesus Christ, ask me and I shall give thee the heathen.
Aren't you glad he did that? Because here we are. Here we
are. Preaching his gospel, singing
his praises. Here we are. I'll give thee the
heathen for thine inheritance and the uttermost parts of the
earth for thy possessions. The earth is the Lord, the fullness
thereof, and they who dwell therein. Satan said to the Lord, if you'll
bow down and worship me, I'll give you the kingdom of the world.
You don't own them. You don't own them. They belong
to God. He never resigned all this over
to Him. He didn't lose. It's His. It's always been the Lord's.
Always been the Lord's. When Satan said that, you know
he's lying because nothing comes out of his mouth that's not a
lie. This has always been His. But listen here in John 17, Father,
I pray for them which thou hast given me. You reckon He'll have
them? You reckon He'll have them? He
said in another place there in John 17, Father, I will. He can
say that. When you're God, you can say
that. If you're God, you can say, I will. And He said, Father,
I will, that they be with me where I am. Not where I'm going. He didn't
say where I'm going, where I am. He's in the bosom of the Father
at the same time he's on this earth. That's a mystery. He said, I pray that they be
with me where I am that they may behold my glory, the glory
I had with you before the world was. You'd think somebody had been
around before the world was, we'd listen to him, wouldn't
we? You'd think we'd listen. Ask me and I'll give it. I'll
give it to you. He intercedes. Now listen. He
intercedes for that which was promised. And he gets it. And then he says here, Thou shalt
break them with a rod of iron. Thou shalt dash them in pieces
like a potter's vessel. Every knee is going to bow. Every
tongue is going to confess. Whether you like it or not, whether
you like it or not, you're going to bow and you're going to confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.
You're going to bow to His redemptive work. You're going to bow to
His righteousness. You're going to bow to His blood. You're going
to bow to everything about Him. You're going to bow. I pray God make me willing to
do it now. Now, now, now. Christ, what he's saying here
is the Lord Jesus Christ, His reign is sure. You can stake
your life on this. His reign is sure. Now be wise. Here's the Lord, you know the
Lord is merciful. Here's space to repent. The preacher speaks. Be wise now therefore, O ye kings. Don't play the fool. Be instructed,
you judges of the earth. Be wise. You can't take on the
Almighty. Don't think like that. Listen
to his preacher. Listen to the message Todd preached. Listen to it. Listen to it. I say, why? Because it's not
Todd, it's God. God's speaking. I know I'm standing
here as a clay pot, but I'm telling you, if this is of God, God is
speaking. When you read the Word of God,
God is speaking. You're not just reading a novel.
You're not just reading another book. You're reading the Word
of God. This is God speaking when you
hear His preacher. And he's preaching Christ. And
he's crucified. I'm telling you, God's speaking. Take heed how you hear. Our Lord
says, for what measure you meet it with, it shall be measured
to you again. Listen to God's preacher. Bow
to King Jesus. Be wise. Serve the Lord. Bow
down to Him. Receive Him. How? With fear and rejoice with
trembling. Now grace can make these three
go together. Grace makes fear, a right fear
of God, rejoicing and trembling all go together. Apart from the grace of God,
the work of God, this will mess you up. Because you'll fear God
wrong. Your fear of God will be wrong.
Your rejoicing will not be rejoicing. It's not. And your trembling
will be from a false understanding of the gospel, of who God is. But grace can put those three
together. You can have a real reverent fear of God and tremble
and rejoice at the same time. Now it all comes down to this,
and I close. Kiss the sun. It's amazing that
he would even say this to a bunch of rebels. I mean, I wouldn't. You know we wouldn't. We wouldn't. But here, it comes down to this.
The nations have gathered together against him. They're raging against
him. They hate him. They let's kill
him. They despise him. They rejected him. And yet, he
says here, he sends his preacher along and he says, kiss my son. Kiss my son. Bow down. And listen
here, when he says kiss my son, kiss the son. Embrace. Embrace Him, His redemptive
work, everything about it. Embrace Him. To kiss the Son
is a show of affection. Peter, do you love me? He didn't say, Peter, do you
believe me? Peter, do you believe the doctrine
of election? I've learned this, I've learned
this. It's a given. If the Lord has saved you and
He revealed Christ to you, you're going to believe the right doctrine.
You're going to believe it. When you hear it, when you hear
it, you're going to bow to it because it's His doctrine. It
comes from Him. When you hear of the elect, behold
mine elect, you won't have no trouble with election when you
learn the elect, who He is. You won't have any trouble with
the doctrine of election. You won't have any trouble with
the doctrine of total depravity when God shows you who you are.
Well, I say He shows you who you are when He shows you who
He is. But you really don't understand total depravity until you see
holiness. When you understand something
of holiness, that's when you understand something of sinfulness.
Because it's the total opposite. It's other. Holiness is other. Other than. Kiss the Son, now listen, lest
He be angry. You don't want... Christ is the
Lamb of God. But He's also the Lion of the
tribe of Judah. Let me deal with the Lamb first. Let me deal with
the Lamb first. Because I can't handle that Lion.
There's a side of Jesus Christ you don't want to deal with. This is the one who says, come
unto me, all you that labor in the heavy laden, I'll give you
rest. And it's the same one who says, depart from me, I never
knew you. Go to hell. Same person. Blessing for the happiness of
all who trust Him. You know the reason you trust
Him, the reason I trust Him. Trust Him. is because of the
grace of God. The grace of God. I trust Him. I believe Him. I believe Him
because I can't help it. You can't help but believe when
the Lord grants you faith, you cannot help it. It's like showing you this piece
of paper. What color is it? White. How did you know that?
I just showed it to you. And when He shows you Christ,
you can't help but believe Him. You can't help because He just
revealed Him to you. When He commands the light of
the Gospel to shine into your heart, you're a new person. You'll never be the same. Alright. What a night. What a wonderful,
wonderful night.