those who request a prayer, I have you a prayer letter from Mary Sue Casey's family. She died last night. I see she was a friend of school people. Yeah, so I heard that family. Stephen's the one who got to go to Duke. When you go in, you haven't heard yet? You got to go to Duke, check on that kid. Also, Tina Renaud, is that your brother? Remember these folks before the war. You can always search for them. Yes, yes.

Sidney, what's that baby's name? We need to put a baby on the prayer list. Let me think of it's name. A baby? Remember a baby? I'll put his name on it. Just like three months old and they've already done what they can to the heart. And they're looking for a No, no. It's just like three or four months old. It's just like three or four months old. Arlo is his name. Arlo. Arlo. Arlo is his name. Arlo. Maybe Arlo. Maybe Arlo. I know that sounds good, doesn't it? You all hear better than I do. I heard that.

Complete in Thee, in all works of mine, I take, dear Lord, the place of thine. Complete in me, and I am now complete in Thee. Ye justify your blessed thought, and sanctify the salvation brought by blood and heart. Adore me, and glorify I do. Don't plead in me, no more shall sin. My grace and honor reign within. My voice shall be the victor theme. When I shall stand, don't plead in me.

Injustify your place in God. and sanctify salvation from that which hath borne for me, and glorify my redemption. Complete in Thee, each portion of life, and openly to be denied. Taste now my voice, Your will be, I ask no more, complete in Thee. To sanctify His salvation brought Thy blood and thorn. Call for me, and glorified I too shall be! Dear Savior, win before Thy heart! we justify salvation If you have your Bibles, turn to the second Psalm, Psalm 2.

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, or His Christ, saying, Let us break their bands and asunder, and cast away the courts from us. And he that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh, and 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 sent my king upon the holy hill of Zion, and I will declare the decree the Lord hath said unto me, Thou art my son, this day have thou begotten me. Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thy inheritance, and the unworthy parts of the earth for thy possession. I shall break them with a rod of iron, and I shall dash them to pieces like a potter's vessel.

Be wise, now therefore, O ye kings. Be indestructed, 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 him. Let's pray. Our Father in heaven, merciful and gracious, just and holy.

You who have magnified your word above your name. You who do your will in the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth. None can stay your hand or even ask what you're doing. You who do not give account of your matters to men, Do as you please in heaven and earth and all the deep places. Thou art God, there is none beside thee, none like unto thee. You declare the end from the beginning. Things that are not to come to pass. Setting forth the fact that what you purpose will stand. And what you speak shall come to pass.

We bow unto your sovereign majesty and we bow in thanksgiving and praise for the perfect sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ that put away the sin of your people and he was made to be their sanctification and righteousness and wisdom and redemption. We pray for those who are sick and going through trials, those who've lost a loved one, this Casey family. Pray for this little baby who's about to receive a new heart. We're full of wonder at such a thing. Pray also for the others who requested prayer. Remember Steve as he's getting ready to go to Duke. Continue to remember her, Aimee Francis, she's doing well.

Lord, we ask for ourselves this hour as we spend this day together. We hear the gospel preached as we take the table of the Lord. And we would remember that the thing that makes the difference, that makes us to differ is not in ourselves, but it's the blessed death of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is He who makes us to differ. It is your grace that makes us to differ. We're all the same as we are born into this world, full of sin, corrupt, depraved.

But thanks to your grace, your electing grace that chose a multitude of men out of a fallen race. Your saving grace that came through the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ by the Holy Spirit has made us new creatures in Christ and given us His Spirit so that we can understand the things that you've said in this book.

We pray you bless this day for your glory. It's in Christ's name we pray. Amen. And your hymn will turn to hymn number 141, Lucky Saints, the Psyche of Glory. The roses now, from the fight returned victorious, they're bringing to each a vow. Crown him, crown him, crowned he comes our victor's brow. While angels crown Him, rich with glory, Jesus breathes. In the seat of power, enthrone Him, while Lord of all men agrees. Crown Him, crown Him, Angels frown around him on his title, praise his name. Crown him, crown him, spread abroad the victor's fame. Hark those verses of acclamation, Those who have a triumphant cause, Jesus takes the highest station. Oh, what joy! What sign! Of course! Crown Him! Crown Him! King of kings and lords! And I pray, Father, give me come in the name of Jesus Christ, our majestic Savior, indeed King of kings.

We gladly place the crown upon his head, for he's done it all. He is Lord of lords, Lord of the living and the dead. And he condescended to come down here to live among sinful men, even take on the likeness of sinful flesh without What a gift you have given your children. And with him, you've freely given us everything. Let us return unto thee that which belongs to you with joy, thanksgiving, and praise.

It's in his name we pray. Amen. you the the the you I invite your attention back to Psalm 2. This psalm is about the glorious, victorious accomplishment of the purpose of God, which includes God is in control of the whole deal, even the raging of the heathen and the discord of the people and the anger of the kings. This psalm is about what happened when Jesus Christ went to the cross, died in the room instead of his people, rose victorious from the grave and ascended on high to sit on the throne that our Lord speaks of in this passage. This psalm is quoted in the Acts of the Apostles, in Acts chapter 4, when the whole church gathers together.

It says, Against the Lord and His Christ, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, the Jews and the Gentiles, gathered together for to do whatsoever had been ordained to be done. So these heathen served to put our savior on the cross, which is what he came to do from eternity, to land up on Calvary and to die in the room instead of his people.

Sets forth the doctrine of predestination. In fact, the first time the word orizo, which is used six times in the New Testament, predestination, the first time it's used is Acts 24. Speaking of the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus Christ. Though Christ and His gospel have always been and will always be opposed until the very last day, the outcome, the destiny of His person and work and security of the chosen has never been in danger of failure and never will be.

When the Lord says, why do the heathen rage, He is not asking a question as He does not know the answer. He's making a statement as to the utter foolishness of potsherds of the earth striving against their maker. The kings of the earth, such as Herod, who put out a contract on Jesus Christ when He was born, or Pilate, who spinelessly gave Him over to the rioting hordes of crucifiers, saw in the end that their silly, foolish, human plans came to naught, not only as the hatred of Christ revealed in the rage of the hierarchy here in this passage, the kings and rulers, but they, with their subjects, make up a general populace of God-haters, which mark the nature of all men, even the chosen of God, until God awakens them to what they really are. Men come into this world as God-haters. They all are merely the human race without Christ. That's what a God-hater is. They are woefully ignorant of the design and the effect of the gospel and prove it by calling evil good and good evil. Their opposition to the gospel is applying to it the reverse of what it accomplishes. The gospel is declared to be a means by which men are set free from fetters, and bondage and shackles of sin.

Read Isaiah 58 and Isaiah 61. This is what the gospel came for. The Lord said, this is the fast that I have ordained to break the bonds, to break the fetters, to feed the hungry, to clothe the naked. And the Lord, quoting in Luke 4 what Isaiah said in Isaiah 61, the Lord has ordained him to preach the gospel. to set at liberty them that are captive.

This is what we do when we preach the gospel. We don't start saying things like, we're gonna hold you in check, we're gonna keep your life in check. We're gonna say, go, be free, free to love Christ, free to live in this world, enjoy your life, enjoy it. That's what the gospel says. But these look at the gospel and say, they're cords and they're bonds. And let's break their cords and their bonds from us. They say the opposite of what the Gospel does.

Those who gather against the Lord and to Christ refer to that which frees man as the very thing which holds them in bondage. This is the epitome of legal, willful blindness, to hear of freedom and call it bondage. Only a warped mind twisted in mutant self-righteousness could look at liberty and see it as chains. Self-righteous religion is fierce liberty as much as the believer fears bondage. I can tell you that I know that from many talking with many legalists over the years and many law keeping preachers over the years. When you talk about being free, they get a scared look on their face. When you talk about setting men free, they get scared.

They want to have some kind of rule to govern and hold people in check. They want some kind of way to make sure that people don't sin. How are you going to do that when everything they do is sin? Or they want to keep them out of the bars and the bordellos, perhaps, and the movie shows and off the internet. I don't know what they want to do nowadays.

When I was growing up, boys and girls couldn't go swimming together. They called it mixed bathing. You couldn't do that. You couldn't do that. Or smoking cigarettes, you couldn't do that. Drinking beer, you couldn't do that. These were the things that they wanted to control. They had church covenants up on the wall. We had one here. When we first came here, we had one in covenants on the wall.

It says, we'll drink no alcoholic beverages. And I just thought, well, that's just crazy. That's just stupid. We have wine when we take the Lord's table. But the religion wants to control. And so when you talk about freedom, it scares them. Don't talk about that. You've got to have some kind of way. There's one rule given in the New Testament.

Our Lord gives many commandments to His people. And He gives them because we lack in those areas to love one another. We lack there. We don't do a good job of that. So we're commanded to do it. But there's one rule for the child of God. Paul quoted in Galatians chapter 6. God forbid that I should be over him. saving the cross of Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I am crucified unto the world. If you follow this rule, he says in verse 8, if you follow this rule, you'll have freedom. This is the rule. What is it? This is what I live by.

Next time somebody wants to put you in chains, say, God forbid that that's the rule. Saving the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. To the Lord such folly that men set is utterly absurd and it's laughable according to the word of God. The Lord says in verse four, he that sinneth in the heavens shall laugh. Shall laugh. The Lord shall have them in derision. He shall laugh. It's utterly absurd. Shall the potsherds of breath strive against the makers, against the potter? Of course not. Of course not.

Scripture sets forth, God is absolutely in power of all things and not concerned with anything that man does that is against him. He's not bothered by it. Over in Isaiah chapter 40. verse seventeen says all nations before him that includes the united states of america my beloved nation all nations before him are as nothing that don't add up to much does it? why do the heathen rage? you can imagine a vain thing they are counted as nothing Nothing to them. All the nations. We've got nations all over the place today and they're fighting among themselves and they're doing this and they're nothing. They're nothing. He says in verse 15, they're not even a drop of the bucket.

Not a drop in the bucket, because that's worthwhile if the drop is in the bucket. This is the drop that falls off the bucket when you draw it out of the well. It goes back. It ain't no good. You don't worry about it. He said, all the nations are a drop of the bucket, and sands of the balance, or dust of the balance. What's that? So you've got scales that gets dust on them. You don't wipe the dust off because it don't count. It don't weigh nothing.

This is how He describes nations. Look down at verse 22. He says this, it is He, God, that sitteth upon the circle of the earth and views all its inhabitants as grasshoppers. Strengthens out the heavens as a curtain spread of them out as a tent to dwell in. All that up there is a curtain, a tent. You look up to the stars at night. But it is a tent that God has given for His children to dwell in. That's what the nations are.

The Lord in heaven shall laugh. Now it's sometimes difficult to trip such a thing as laughter to God, but the word is plain. All the opposition of gathered rebellious humanity is but laughable folly before the absolute purpose of God. It is, in fact, a thing used by His sovereign will to accomplish His predestinated purpose, much to the cultivationist colony's chagrin.

Romans 9, read it. Most people wish it wasn't even in the Bible, but read Romans 9, find out what God does. What He does with people. What He does with individuals. I hear people talk about God all the time. I saw a guy on TV this morning. I was looking at the business news and this guy had a plus sign on his head and he was doing a prayer. He was advertising an app where a whole lot of people pray.

And as I listened to him pray, nothing sounded at all in what he said. It sounded nice and sweet, but the God he was talking about couldn't do nothing. Couldn't do nothing. That's not the God of Scripture. The Scottish God of Scripture does exactly as He pleases, whenever He pleases, with whomever He pleases, however He pleases. He's just that way. He's just that way. And all those people hating Christ, trying to crucify Him, crucify Him, crucify Him. Pilate, Aaron, all of them were there for the single purpose of getting Jesus Christ to that cross. And they had no idea. They had no idea.

He who sitteth in the heavens shall laugh. Shall laugh. The word says surely, truly, the wrath of man shall praise God. And the rest, he will astray. The wrath of man shall praise God. He will have the whole cluster of naysayers and malcontents in derision, he said. This means he will mock them and ridicule them. The manner in which he will do it is found in one of the meanings of the word derision in the original language. It sets forth the uncomfortable feeling that one gets when someone is speaking in a language they do not understand.

You've been in situations like that. I have. Sometimes I get among brethren out here, and I listen for the word you name, because I know they're talking about me. But sometimes it's uncomfortable when they're looking at me with side eyes and talking. I'm thinking, oh, they're talking about me. That's deriding to me. They're not doing it on purpose, but to me this is what makes me feel. And this is the Lord said, I want to have them in derision. I want to speak to them in a language they don't understand. In a language they don't understand. And he does. The means of deriding these militants against Christ is to speak to them in a language that they can't get. And one of the words he uses to define derision is stammering. I want to stammer. I'm going to stammer. Three or four times in scripture, when the gospel is preached, it's said to be preached with a stammering tongue. Stammering tongue. What that means, it's hard to understand. What it is, the gospel, you see, can't be understood by natural man.

Oh, he can recite it. He can put it in all his ducks in a row, linguistically. But he can't understand that this thing called the gospel of Jesus Christ, this gold spiel, this good news, this glad tidings that's sent forth by God himself, they can't understand that this actually is the power of God in this world. It's the dynamic of God Almighty. It's the dunamis, the dynamite of God Almighty in this world, this gospel. People think, well I don't have anything to do with it. It's done it's business on you. I don't believe it. It's done it's business on you. It's executed it's power on you, if you're an unbeliever. Because the gospel is two things. The gospel is a savior of life unto some, and a savior of death unto others, and it's always successful before God. It's always a sweet smelling savor of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ before God. Always! Always. What language does he speak? The Gospel.

Hebrews chapter 1 verses 1 and 2. God at Sunday times in a diver's manner spoke unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken to us in his Son. And actually it's in sons. This is the language way back when. In a place called Babylon, God separated people with language. You see, language creates culture, language creates tribal, language creates nations. Because people were able to commune with each other. But God confused the language so they couldn't build a tower all the way to heaven. So they couldn't have that vanity. It was a great thing, a merciful thing that God did, splitting them up. But then he said in Zimbabwe, I'm going to bring my people to a pure language. And now they'll all be of one language and one accord.

I've got friends all over this world. Some of them don't speak my language. I've got brethren down in Mexico. I don't speak their language except just a little bit. I've got brethren in Zimbabwe. all over the world that send me notes or listen to my messages online. They don't speak my language. They're not gonna speak English or American English. They don't speak that. What do they speak?

We speak the same language, the pure language. We speak the gospel. Because we're both saved by the same grace and the same mercy and God has given us his word in our hearts. This is the language that God speaks that confuses men and has them in derision. It'll deride religion for sure. The kings of the earth, the people gather together against God and his Christ.

Just tell them the gospel. Watch their eyes roll. Watch them be upset. It can't be that simple that violation is about just one thing, oh yes it is. And in verse 5, as a continuation of verse 4, the word then is more properly and. It says, then or and shall he speak unto them in his wrath and vex them in their sore displeasure. It's part of laughing and derision.

He speaks to them not in understandable utterances, but rather speaks to them in deriding providence, the language he speaks that men are confounded by. Providence. Imagine the ridicule these felt that stood in the courtyard and cried, crucify, crucify him. We'll not have this man reign over us, they said.

And found out he had risen from the dead. Risen from the dead and enthroned. Imagine their embarrassment as the gospel began to gain ground before their eyes. Imagine early in the Book of Acts Jerusalem and Peter preached and 4,000 people confessed Christ. Imagine their dismay when they saw the growth and power of the gospel displayed in the church in the early days. The calamity is, I think, most poignantly declared throughout the Book of Acts. You see it over and over again. How the world was amazed.

Who are these people? There was 11 of them then. Well, I know Matthias was probably with them by then, but he wasn't the 12th Apostle Paul. They were going out and preaching, and you know what these fellas said? In these great cities, and there were some great cities back then, powerful cities, great commerce centers, shipping places and things like that, you know what they said?

These fellas had turned the world upside down. Just twelve, nobody's, unlearned men, with the power of God in their hands. And this is what the world said. They turned the world upside down. They're just messing up everything. Twelve men, endued with the Holy Spirit of God, and the Word of God in their mouth. And all they had was the Old Testament. They preached Christ from the Old Testament, just like this is a passage written about Christ. Ultimately, the laughing and derision, the providential speaking and wrath is summed up in Psalm 2, verse 6.

Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill Zion. Now, Zion is the church. God has set his king on Zion's hill of holiness. His king is none other than his son, the anointed. We just sung about him. King of kings and Lord of lords. The Christ, the son of the living God, the first begotten from the dead. On heaven's throne at the right hand of the majesty on high sits the king. God's king, God's anointed, the king of kings.

He is king of the despicable counseling rulers. He is the king of those who hate him and wish to cast his courts from them, who would not have this man reign over them. Yet, there he is, even now, by decree of God, by right of familial royal ascendancy. Let men plan, and plot, and scheme, and design, counsel, and declare. Their doings are chaff in the wind, because the king sits on his throne. There's a young lion, the king. From the prey is an old lion in repose, and who shall rouse him up?

He rules an absolute, unchallengeable, invulnerable, and unassailable authority. God has given him authority over all flesh, he says in his high priestly prayer in John 17. Why did God give him power over all flesh? Because in all that flesh there are God's chosen, God's elected to salvation. So Christ controls them all. Giving me power over all flesh, he said to give eternal life to as many as He has given me. This is why He has power over all flesh.

You see, He's on the King. He's on the throne, the King is. For the Lord God omnipotent reigneth, saith the Scripture. To the opposing world He is the desperate derision, the majesty that mocks their supposed will, a wrecks who ridicules their paltry dreams of self-deification. To the people of the Holy Realm He is The kind, loving, and gracious ruler who works all things for their good and for his own glory. To those who yet oppose him, our Lord gives sound advice in verse 12.

Kiss the son. Kiss the son, lest he be angry. And you perish from the way when his wrath is kindled just a little bit. Just a little bit. Old Barnard, you say, stack your guns in the corner and surrender. Surrender. Kiss the feet of the Zion's king. Come up to that throne on your knees and kiss his feet. You don't want to know the result of refusing to do that when his wrath is kindled with a little Those who are blessed, trust, serve, fear, and rejoice in Him. Kiss the Son.

He is Yogi, and He's King because He earned it. Taking upon Himself the fashion of a man, in being found in the form of man, He became obedient even to the death of the cross. Wherefore, God has highly exalted Him. on the throne and given him a name above every name. And at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow and every tongue confess that he's Lord to the glory of the Father. Things in heaven, things in earth, things under the earth, things in the sea.

Scripture says the trees will clap their hands together as the morning stars will sing together. He's the king. What a marvelous king he is. What a marvelous king, and he's king because he died. And that's what we celebrate in the Lord's table. His marvelous, wondrous death.

Mary, would you help me serve today? Malcolm, would you help me serve today? On the night our Lord was betrayed, he took bread and breaking gave it to his disciples. On this last Passover, the Passover he said he was really looking forward to taking it with his disciples.

He took that unleavened bread and part of the Passover feast and handed it to them after he was breaking and said, take it, this is my body broken for you. Now, it wasn't his body, it was bread. But it pictured and signified his body. And he took the cup, the wine, and gave it to them and said, Now this was given as an ordinance to the church. I believe there are three ordinances to the church.

Baptism, which is a confession of the death of Jesus Christ and you are symbolically picturing being buried with him and being raised again when you're dipped into the water, dumped into the water, grounded in the water and brought out of the water again alive. There is the preaching of the gospel, which we declare Jesus Christ and Him crucified. This is the death of Jesus Christ. So the baptism is about His death. And the gospel is about His death. And this is about His death. His body and His blood.

This is for believers. If you're not a believer, don't take this. No shame in that, don't take this. Because it says in scripture that you could get sick doing it. I don't understand, but that's what the scripture says. It said some even died. I don't understand that either, but that the Lord says it's so, so I'm kind of going to bank on Him, not me. But if you're a believer in this hour, you are trusting in the merits of Jesus Christ for your salvation. If you know that that body and that blood is your salvation, You can actually take this into your body and show that Jesus Christ died for you. There's nothing spiritual in these elements. I bought these from a bookstore. I bought the wine at the local wine store. I bought the bread at a Christian bookstore. Nothing in these elements that are spiritual.

But what you're doing is you're remembering or commemorating something that happened 2,000 years ago. And you're saying, that's my salvation, right under, on that cross. This is the body representing the body and the blood of Jesus Christ. Let's ask the Lord's blessing on the others. Father, I pray you'd be pleased to allow us to worship you now in the simplest and plainest manner. To take this bread representing the body of Jesus Christ broken for us and blood he shed for us to put away our sins, satisfy your justice, and even he was made to be our righteousness. Help us to simply worship you as we consider him who died, that we might have life and have it more abundantly. We ask it in Christ's name, amen. Shri Mataji.

On the night I was betrayed, he took the bread of the Passover feast and break it and handed it to his disciples and said, take, eat. This is my body broken for you. As often as you do it, do it in remembrance of me. On the same night, he took the cup. He said, this cup is the new testament in my blood. As often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you do so for my death until I come again. Do this in remembrance of me. Then they sang a hymn. It went out to be, Our Lord was betrayed that night with a kiss of Judas. Let's stand together.

To be free from your burden of sin, there's fire in the blood, fire in the blood. Would you or me love to be free when there's wonderful fire in the blood? There is power, power, wonder-working power in the blood of the Lamb. There is power, power, wonder-working power in the precious blood of the Lamb. Our Lord said the mark of His children is that they love one another. So love one another. God bless you. Thank you.