Welcome to Reign of Grace. This
program is brought to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries,
an outreach ministry of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany,
Georgia. It is our pleasure and privilege
to present to you the gospel message of the sovereign grace
and glory of God in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray that today's program
will be a blessing to you. Thank you for listening and now
for today's program. Welcome to our program. I'm glad
you could join us today. If you'd like to follow along
in your Bibles, I'm going to be preaching from Psalm 2, the
book of Psalms. As you know, Psalms are very
popular. We think about some of the most
popular Psalms, like Psalm 23, the Lord is my shepherd, I shall
not want, things like that. We're going to the second Psalm,
and the title of the message is The Lord's Decree. The Lord's Decree, and that's
taken from verse seven of Psalm two, where we read, I will declare
the decree the Lord has said unto me, thou art my son, this
day have I begotten thee. Now that is a prophecy of the
Lord Jesus Christ fulfilled by Christ when he came to the earth
to accomplish redemption for his people. But let me say a
word. generally about this. You know,
oftentimes I like to just sit down and read the Psalms for
comfort whenever I'm troubled or just whenever I just want
to get a blessing from the Word of God. Someone said one time
that if you want to learn how to worship, read the Psalms.
If you want to learn how to pray, read the Psalms. The Psalms,
just like they're poetic books, and some of them were actually
sung to particular tunes, some of them were meant to be that
way, some of them were not, but they are poetic books that concern,
ultimately, the glorious person and finished work of Christ.
And you may not see it that way, but when the Lord, after his
crucifixion and his resurrection, He met with the disciples and
he set them down and he taught them out of the books of Moses,
which would be the law, the first five books of the Old Testament,
books of the law. He taught them out of the books
of Moses and out of the Psalms. Now the Psalms referred to there,
this is in Luke chapter 24 if you want to read about that.
But the Psalms that he's talking about is not just the book here
that we have in our English Bible that is entitled Psalms. That's
all the poetic books. And that would include books
like Song of Solomon, books like Ecclesiastes, Proverbs. These are the poetic books. So
Christ set his disciples down and he taught them out of the
books of Moses, that's the law books, and the Psalms, the poetic
books, and the prophets. And of course that would include
books like Isaiah, Jeremiah, all of those books that they
had at that time. That covers the whole Old Testament. And
it says in Luke 24 that he taught them out of the books of Moses,
out of the law books, out of the poetic books, out of the
Psalms and the prophets, the things concerning himself. And what I believe he was doing
was showing the disciples, they knew the gospel now, and he was
commissioning them to go into all the world and preach the
gospel. But he's teaching them there, he was teaching them there
before he ascended into glory, how to preach Christ out of the
Old Testament, taking the things of the Old Testament. And that's
what I wanna do today in this Psalm 2 concerning the Lord's
decree. And you'll see that this is,
you know, most of the Psalms and the history books and the
law books and, you know, the prophets, there can be an earthly,
historical, temporal application, especially to the nation Israel
under the old covenant, which when all of these things happened. But the ultimate spiritual lesson
that comes from these books of the Bible, these passages, is
as they point to and lead sinners to Christ for salvation, for
righteousness, for forgiveness, for eternal life and glory. And
that's what this is about. And it starts off in verse one.
This is Psalm two, verse one. Why do the heathen rage? Now that word rage means there's
an assembly of unbelievers. That's what the heathen. That's
an unbeliever. And why do they rage? Why do
they assemble with hatred? That's the idea. He says, why
do the heathen rage and the people imagine a vain thing? Now, what is he talking about? Well, verse two tells us. It
says, the kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers
take counsel together against the Lord and against His anointed. Now, against the Lord God and
against His anointed, which is the Messiah, the Christ. And
if you'll look over in the book of Acts chapter four, This is
where Peter and John were preaching in Jerusalem before they were
scattered everywhere. And they quote this verse. In
connection with the vast rejection of the gospel of God's free and
sovereign grace in and by the Lord Jesus Christ, the vast majority
of the Israelites rejected, and the Gentiles too, the Romans,
the Greeks, the Jews, rejected Christ. They did not receive
him. And of course, that's a picture
of man by nature. That's a picture of all of us
by nature. Because I often quote on this program, 1 Corinthians
2.14, the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit
of God. The natural man is what we are by nature. How we are
born naturally into this world. But listen to what they preached
here. He's talking about, it says in verse 23, this is Acts
4.23. He says, and being let go, they went to their own company
and reported all that the chief priest and elders had said unto
them. Now, they had been brought up
on trial for preaching Christ. They had been told not to preach
in the name of Christ anymore. And they were brought up on trial.
And of course, Peter said, well, whether it's better to obey God
or to obey you, we obey God. And it says in verse 24, 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 is in them, all that in them is, who
by the mouth of thy servant David has said, why did the heathen
rage? Now they're quoting Psalm 2 that
was written by the Holy Spirit through David. David was the
author, but it's the Spirit of God who wrote it, who inspired
him. And it says, David said, why
did the heathen rage, this is Acts 4.25, 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,
here's the Messiah, for of a truth, verse 27, for of a truth against
thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed both Herod, Pontius
Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, were gathered
together. They were gathered together in
a united hatred for Christ, for the gospel. And that's natural
man. When the true gospel is preached,
the natural hatred of man comes out. That's the light that shines
in the darkness and exposes our deeds as being evil. And what's
amazing about this, in verse 28 of Acts chapter four, listen
to this. All of this opposition, he said,
for to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before
to be done. Now this was the predetermination
of the Lord that brought Christ to the cross to save His people
from their sins. And so, back here in Psalm 2,
look at verse 2 again. The kings of the earth set themselves
and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against
His anointed. They were in hatred, they were
imagining a vain thing. And what was the vain thing they
were imagining? Well, they were imagining salvation
by their works. The Bible tells us that that's
the natural man's way. Righteousness on that sliding
scale of man's works whereby he thinks he can attain enough
goodness to please God. But the Bible says, no, we're
sinners. And sinners cannot do anything good in the sight of
God according to God's standard of goodness. And so we imagine
a vain thing whenever we think that we can be saved and accepted
with God based on anything other than the righteousness of the
Lord Jesus Christ freely imputed and received by faith. And it
says in verse three, they say, let us break their bands asunder
and cast away their cords from us. He that sitteth in the heavens
shall laugh. The Lord shall have them in derision.
They're standing against the Lord God of the universe, the
God who created the heavens and the earth, the God who's in control. And the language here shows how
the derision that God has for such. There is absolutely no gleam of chance here, as we say. We don't believe in chance. But
they have no chance. They're coming against a God
who cannot be defeated. And he laughs at their derision.
It says in verse five, then shall he speak unto them in his wrath
and vex them, trouble them in his sore displeasure. The wrath
of God abides on all who are found before him without Christ.
That's what we need to understand. The Bible says that the only
hope that we as sinners have to please God, to be blessed
by God, salvation, to be right with God, is the glorious person
and the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. And there's
no other hope. We have to be washed in his blood
and clothed in his righteousness. And we'll see that in just a
minute. Look at what he says in verse six. He says, yet, against
all of this derision and all of this hatred and opposition,
yet have I, God, set my king up on my holy hill of Zion. Christ was sent into the world
to do the work that the Father gave Him to do. He accomplished
that work, He died on the cross, He was buried, He arose again
the third day, He ascended into glory, into the heavens, and
sat down on the right hand of the Father. He is established
as the King of kings and Lord of lords. And this Zion is His
people, it's His church, it's His family. That's what that
refers to. If you want to read about the
Zion, the eternal spiritual Zion, I know there was a physical hill
called Zion in Jerusalem or outside of Jerusalem. But ultimately,
that's not what he's talking about. He's talking about the
church, the place of his abode. And we can see that over in Hebrews
chapter 12, if you'll look with me there. Here, the writer of
Hebrews is showing a vast difference between the law of Moses, which
condemned, and the gospel of Christ, which saves, justifies
the ungodly through the imputed righteousness of Christ. And
he tells the people of God here, he says, you didn't come for
salvation, you didn't come to Mount Sinai. That's where the
law was revealed. with all of its fiery manifestations
of wrath. He says in verse 22 of Hebrews
12, but you are come unto Mount Zion. Now it's spelled with an
S here in the New Testament, but it's Zion with a Z, same
thing. You come unto Mount Zion and
unto the city of the living God to the heavenly Jerusalem, not
the physical Jerusalem, not earthly Jerusalem, but the heavenly Jerusalem,
and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly
and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven."
That's the ones whose names are written in heaven. Written in
the Lamb's book of life, the Lamb's slate, and that was written
before the foundation of the world. to God the judge of all,
and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and look at Hebrews
12, 24, and to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the
blood of sprinkling that speaketh better things than that of Abel. Remember Abel, Cain and Abel.
The first illustration in the Bible of two men coming to worship
God. One on a wrong ground, his works,
that's Cain. The other on the right ground,
the blood of the Lamb, which pictured Christ, that's Abel.
Well, we've got something better than what Abel had. The blood
of an animal cannot take away sin. Abel knew that. The book
of Hebrews chapter 11 tells us that. Abel saw in that blood
of the animal a picture of Christ. And that's what this is all about.
Go back to Psalm 2 now. He says, I have set my king upon
my holy hill of Zion. Christ is king. And in order
to be made king in his mediatorial work, he had to accomplish the
salvation, the redemption of all for whom he died. You see,
people today, they believe that Christ died for everybody upon
condition of their believing and repenting. But that's not
what the Bible teaches. That's not what the gospel teaches.
The Bible teaches, the gospel teaches that Christ died for
his sheep. people who were given to him
before the foundation of the world and in his death he accomplished
their redemption and their believing and their repenting is the fruit
of his dying on the cross for them. It's the fruit of his righteousness
that was established by his death as their surety, their substitute,
and their redeemer. And so he says in verse 7, I
will declare the decree Now this is the decree of God, the Lord's
decree. This is the purpose, the sovereign
will of God accomplished in the glorious person and finished
work of Christ. And here it is, the Lord hath
said unto me, thou art my son, this day have I begotten thee. Now that's quoted throughout
the New Testament. It's quoted in the book of Hebrews.
And Christ is the only begotten of the Father, that refers to
His incarnation. You see, as God the Son, the
second person of the Trinity, He is eternal and having no beginning
and no end. But it was appointed for Him
on a particular day that God appointed by His decree that
Christ would be made flesh and dwell among us. And we see that
throughout the New Testament. Galatians chapter 4 says that
in the fullness of the time God sent forth his son made of a
woman, that's the beginning here, made of a woman, made under the
law, that's salvation, the salvation of his elect, conditioned on
Christ, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the
law. Now this begetting, sometimes it refers to his incarnation,
the word made flesh, dwelt among us, God with us, that's who Christ
is. And it also refers to his resurrection,
begotten again from the dead. He's the firstborn from the dead. And so it refers to the whole
work of Jesus Christ. And here's what he says, verse
eight, He says, ask of me and I shall give thee the heathen
for thine inheritance. The Bible says that Christ was
exalted by the Father upon the accomplishment of the redemption
of his people. And he says, every knee shall
bow and every tongue shall confess that Jesus is Lord. And he said,
the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. It all belongs
to him. There's nothing outside of his
ownership. It's all his. And even the heathen
in their forced submission, which will eventually come, even they
belong to Him. That's His inheritance. That's
what He accomplished. He's the Lord of the universe. There's nothing out of His control.
People don't understand that because they see so much evil
in the world. But I'm telling you, God's in
control. He's not, listen, God is not
some kind of a cosmic chess player who reacts to our moves. We make
our move and he makes his counter move. He's not some cosmic janitor
who runs behind us cleaning up our messes. God is in control. He declares the end from the
beginning. and it all belongs to Christ.
He is right now ruling, reigning, and disposing over all things
to the praise of the glory of His grace, so that all things
work together for good. Now that verse, that's Romans
8, 28. All things work together for
good to them that love the Lord, who are called according to His
purpose. That doesn't say all things are
good. It says all things work together
for good. And what that means is that this,
God is working them together for his glory and the good of
his people. It's all going to come out for
the good of his people, to the praise of the glory of his grace.
And so he says in verse nine of Psalm two, thou shalt break
them with a rod of iron. That's his judgment, God's judgment. Thou shalt dash them in pieces
like a potter's vessel. You see, there is no hope outside
of God's grace in Christ. Outside of God's grace, this
is the only thing you have to look forward to, to be broken
with a rod of iron, to be dashed in pieces like a potter's vessel. That's the wrath of God, and
it's just. It's not God being mean. It's
not God throwing a temper tantrum. It's the just, righteous wrath
of God. But here's the glory of it. Look
at verse 10. He says, be wise now therefore,
O ye kings, be instructed, ye judges of the earth. And verse
11, he says, serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling. Serve the Lord. Here's the point.
You say, well, is he just trying to scare us out of unbelief and
scare us into the kingdom of God? No. There is a being scared
of hell. I don't want to go to hell. I
don't want to die and be without Christ. And I don't think you
do either. Now, some of you may say, well,
you don't believe there's an afterlife. Bible teaches us very
plainly of the four issues that every person has to face. And
that's number one, we all have a life to live. Number two, we
all have a death to die. Number three, we all have a judgment
to face. And number four, we all have
an eternity to spend. So how are we going to live our
lives? How are we going to die? How are we going to face judgment?
How are we going to spend eternity? What's the answers? Well, the
Bible gives the answers to the people of God. The people of
God, at some point in time, are going to be given spiritual life
from above. They are justified before God
based upon the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ, and
they will be raised from the dead spiritually in the new birth.
and live their life for the glory of God. They'll die in the faith,
die in Christ, go to sleep rather, and they will face the judgment
not in order to find out where they're going to go or how much
they're going to get. The judgment of God's people
is a declarative thing where it will be declared before the
whole universe that these are the people of God saved by His
grace, washed in the blood of Christ, and robed in His righteousness
imputed. And they will spend eternity
in the eternal bliss of fellowship of God, worshiping Him, serving
Him. So serve the Lord with fear.
It doesn't mean legal fear of punishment. It's talking about
having a reverence and respect for the God who is in control. And if we're saved, the God who
saved me by His grace. A reverence is what it is. And it brings us to faith, and
it brings us to rejoice with trembling. Well, now how can
you rejoice with trembling? Well, what he's talking about
is this, the people of God. We can say we tremble, we fear
in this sense. I tremble to think of coming
before God. on my own, apart from Christ. But having Christ as my hope,
as my foundation, as the Lord my righteousness, as my sin-bearer,
as my Lord and my King, I can rejoice. I rejoice in Him. Rejoice in the Lord always. And don't even think about appearing
before God outside of Christ. And here's the key, look at verse
12. Now this is all the decree of God, the Lord's decree for
his people. And the heathen will experience
God's wrath. So he says, here's what we do,
verse 12, kiss the son. lest he be angry, and you perish
from the way when his wrath is kindled but a little. You see
that? Now this kiss, in that culture
back then, you would greet each other with a holy kiss. It was
like a handshake today, or like a hug. And what he's saying is
kiss the son, embrace Christ by faith. Embrace Him. Believe in Him. Commune with
Him. Rest in Him. Call upon Him while
He's near. Believe in Him. Trust Him. Plead
His merits, not your own. Rest in Christ and embrace Him,
lest He be angry. Because without Christ, all we
have to look forward to is the anger of God. And he says at
the end of this in verse 12, blessed are all they that put
their trust in him. That's what it is to kiss the
sun. Now faith in Christ and repentance, faith which causes
us to turn to Christ and repentance which causes us to turn away
from self and everything else other than Christ are both the
gifts of God. They're part of the Lord's decree.
The salvation that God has for His people by His grace is a
salvation which He gave them in Christ Jesus before the world
began. And when we are brought to see
the reality of sin and righteousness and judgment, we'll embrace the
Son according to the Lord's decree and by the Lord's power, not
our own. but His. It's not our free will,
it's not our decision, it's His power to bring us to see the
glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, whereby we, in the Lord's
decree, kiss the Son, trust in Him. I hope you'll join us for
another message from God's Word. We are glad you could join us
for another edition of Reign of Grace. This program is brought
to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries, an outreach ministry
of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany, Georgia. To receive
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today and may the Lord be with you.