Let's read it again before we
look at the last seven verses. Look in Psalms chapter 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 saints. 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
into risen. Then shall he speak to them in
his wrath and vex them in his sore displeasure. Yet have I
set my king upon my holy hill of Zion. I will declare the decree. The Lord hath 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 sun. Lest ye be angry,
and ye perish from the way, when this wrath is kindled but a little.
Blessed are all they that put their trust in Him. Verse 6 is
where I want to begin. Yet have I set my King upon my
holy hill of Zion. Now, this is one of the most
amazing verses and amazing things. Verse 6 here, in all of this
psalm, is a true story. It's a true story. But the amazing
thing about it is it happened. It was written before it happened. The Lord knew what was going
to happen. He ordained what was going to
happen. His enemies were going to attempt to overthrow Him.
Stop Him from His purpose. And yet he comes here and says
in verse 6, after all that they had done and all they could do,
he says, I've already defeated your purpose. Verse 6, yet have
I set my son. They had done everything they
could do. They had bragged, they had boasted, they were so arrogant,
let us cast their bands asunder. That's exactly what they said.
Pilate, and Herod, and the rulers of the Jews? The apostles said
that's what they said. And here the Lord, almost 1,500
years before they did that, He said, fellows, I've already defeated
your purpose. I have set my King upon my holy
hill of Zion. The Scripture says He came unto
His own, and His own received Him not. Did that change His
purpose? No, that fulfilled his purpose
because he said that he is despised and rejected of man, a man of
sorrow. That was already predicted. The
scripture says they took him by wicked hands and crucified
him and slew him. Did that change his purpose?
Well, of course not. The scripture says they did exactly
what God determined before should be done. Pilate gave them a guard
and said, you go make the tomb as sure as you can. You make
it as sure as you can. And I almost hear the Lord laughing,
don't you? You fellas go ahead and make
it as sure as you can. But this is what I want you to
know already, that I've already defeated the best you can do.
I have set my king upon my holy hill of Zion. I love the way
he says this here, and this is the Father speaking. This is
a wonderful psalm. You see different people speaking.
I imagine it's the Holy Spirit speaking through David, and the
Father speaks and Christ speaks, but now the Father speaks, and
it's the Father who says, I have set my King upon my holy hill
of Zion. Jesus Christ is a threefold King. He said to be king of nations.
Rule thou in the midst of your enemies. Who's ruling the countries? As you and I are here in this
place of worship tonight, there's wars going on all over this world. There's all kinds of evil things
happening as well as good things. Who is it that's ruling this
whole earth and all the inhabitants and the outer space? Who's ruling this? Jesus of Nazareth,
the son of man. Isn't that amazing? I have sent
my king and he's king of nations. The king's heart is in the hands
of Jesus Christ. One of the most arrogant and
ignorant statements that any king was ever made. It was just
this. Don't you know I have power to
crucify you or to save you? Well, he thought that was it.
Humanly speaking, And what did the Lord Jesus say to him? You
have no idea who you're talking to. You have no idea who I am. I'm your King. Was He not your
King? Yes, He was His King. And He
said you could have no power at all over Me except My Father
which sent Me. Gave you that power. You're just
permitted to do this one day. I am your King. I am your King,
Pilate. I'm your King. He's King of nations.
All power is given to me in heaven and in earth. A fellow told me
one time, he said, I believe the Lord could rule if He wanted
to. And I said, listen, man, He wants
to. And whatever He wants to do, He does it. Don't the Bible
say that? Whatsoever He did. Whatsoever
He pleased that He did. He wants to rule, He is ruling.
All power is given to Him and in heaven and in earth. He's
called, secondly, the King of Saints. Now, why is He called
the King of Saints? Because He's the head of His
church. Brother Glenn read that to us
this morning, that God has raised Him from the dead and made Him,
given Him to be head over all things to the church. He is ruling
in His church. He's ruling by His Spirit. He's
ruling by His grace. He's ruling by His Word. As you
and I come here this evening, we're here under His name and
under His authority. He is King of Saints. And the Scripture says here in
this verse that He's God's King. I have set my King upon my holy
hill of Zion. Now what does it mean for God
to install Him as His King? That's saying a lot, ain't it?
When He says to a man, The man, Jesus of Nazareth, the man, when
he sets him on his right hand and says, Here, I've installed
you as my king. Now that's saying a lot, brothers
and sisters. What does that mean? That means that God has turned
everything over into his hand. All the wishes of God, all the
desires of God, all the purposes of God, the will of God has been
given unto the hands of Jesus of Nazareth, and He is going
to rule until He brings the whole shebang back under His Father's
control. That's what the Bible says. Listen
to 1 Corinthians 15, 24. Listen to this. I'll read it
to you. Then come at the end. The end
is coming. Not yet, but it's coming. Here's
when it will come. When He shall, when Christ shall
have delivered up the kingdom to God, even His Father, when
He shall have put down all rule, all authority, and all power,
for He must reign till He hath put all enemies under His feet. The last enemy that shall be
destroyed is death. For he hath put all things under
his feet, but when he said he put all things under his feet,
it is manifested that God is accepted which put all things
under his feet. And when all things shall be
subdued unto him, then the Son also himself shall be subject
unto him who put all things under his feet." God raised him from
the dead and said, You are my King. Rule. Rule. Is there any area, any aspect
in all the universe of your life that Jesus Christ doesn't rule?
Brothers and sisters, there's not. You look inside yourself
and you say, Bruce, I feel myself to be such a rebel. I can't subdue
myself. I always struggle with sin. But
over and above every bit of that, He is ruling. He is ruling. We don't establish doctrine by
the way we feel. I just don't feel like He's ruling
over me. But He is. He does it so secretly
in His saints and so secretly in His world. It's difficult
to detect. But here's a way you can detect
it. What would happen if He wasn't ruling? What would you be like
considering yourself now? What would you do? What would
you think? What would you be like if He was not ruling in
you? Oh, you'd be a devil, wouldn't
you? You'd give the devil a run for his money. What would this
world be like if Jesus wasn't ruling? Yes, He's ruling. Thank God He's ruling. The Lord
Jesus Christ is ruling. Where the Word of the King is,
there's power. He's the King. He's God's King. And He speaks. Look here in verse
7. He's the King. And look here at what he says.
I guess you could probably call him the prophet here, but look
what he says in verse 7. Here's the Son speaking. All
these years before He was born, here's Jesus of Nazareth, the
Son of Mary, and here He's speaking. I will declare the decree the
Lord hath said unto me, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten
Thee. Notice what he says, I will declare
the decree. In other words, he says, I'm
going to reveal the mind of God. See, when God enthroned him as
the king, now he's the prophet. What does he do? He teaches us
of God, doesn't he? He got his little band of disciples
together there in the upper room, and he prayed to the Father,
and he said, Father, I have manifested Your name unto the men which
You've given me out of the world. You know, we can't know a thing
of God apart from the Son. He has to reveal the Father to
us. We don't know the Father, but
He does. And it's Christ that reveals. He declares. He teaches. He manifests. He says, I will
declare the decree. Well, I tell you this, you ain't
going to know it if you don't. If you don't teach us, we won't
be taught. Now, that's the truth. I will declare the decree. We cannot know anything savingly
of God the Father except through the Son of God. the Lord Jesus. But here's a mystery. Look at
what he says in verse 7. Thou art my son. This day have
I begotten thee. Now, there's three ways that
Christ is looked at in the scriptures as the begotten of the Father.
And the first one is the greatest mystery of all. He's the eternal
begotten of the Father. Now, don't ask me to explain
that. He has always been the Son of God, has he not? You go
back in eternity as far as you want to go back. The Son of God
is there. He is one with the Father. He
is the Son. God the Son, God the Father,
and God the Holy Spirit. And He's always been the Son
of God, but He's always been the only begotten. Glenn, you talked about that
this morning. He's the eternal begotten Son of God. Now, how
in the world are you going to understand that? Because when
we think of begotten, what do you think about? There's a conception.
There's a birth. But not here. He's the eternally
begotten of the Father. Secondly, He's the only begotten
of the Father in His humanity. Nobody was ever conceived like
Him. The Holy Ghost shall come upon you. The power of the highest
shall overshadow you, and that holy thing which shall be conceived
in you shall be called the Son of God. He was begotten in his
humanity. He had no earthly father. The
begotten of the Father. Glenn, you said it this morning.
Nobody else ever borne like that. Ever begotten that way. And here
is what he's talking about here. He's the begotten of the Father
from the dead. Paul quoted this. Scripture and
the first message that we ever have recorded. Hold Psalm chapter
2 and turn over quickly and look at this. Look in Acts chapter
13. Paul had preached and preached
and preached, but this is his first message that we have any
record of where he actually said things. But look here in Acts
chapter 13 and look in verse 30. He's speaking here the very
same things that you and I have been looking at. how that the
Jews killed him. In verse 30 of Acts 13, But God
raised him from the dead. He first gives eyewitness account. And he was seen many days of
them that came up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are
his witnesses unto the people. And we declare unto you glad
tidings, how that the promise which was made unto the fathers
God hath fulfilled the same unto us, our children, in that he
hath raised up Jesus again. Now look, as it is written in
the second Psalm, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten
thee. God never did raise anybody from
the dead like He raised His Son. Everybody that we have record
of that the Lord raised from the dead died again. But when
He was raised from the dead, He had this glorious body. And the Father in heaven could
look at that body and that soul and say, You today are my only
begotten from the dead. That's amazing, isn't it? The
Lord Jesus said, I will declare the decree. The Father said unto
me, God has said unto me, Thou art my Son. This day have I begotten
thee. Now look back over in our text
again in Psalms chapter 2. This is an amazing thing here. Look what he says in verse 8.
Ask of me, and I will give thee the heathen for thine inheritance,
and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. Here's
the Father now. He's speaking. The Son just spoke,
and now the Father's speaking. And here's what the Father says
to the Son. Ask of Me. Ask of Me. Now, ain't that amazing? We talked
about this the other night, didn't we? About prayer. And the Father
says to His only begotten Son, My Son, ask of Me. God has so many things for His
children. And you know how He often gives
it to them? by their asking. There's an amazing chapter in
Ezekiel chapter 36. You remember where he said, I'll
give you a new heart and a new spirit. I'll take out the old
heart of stone and I'll give you a heart of flesh and I'll
cause you to walk in my statutes. Then he goes right on down there,
I think it's in verse 36, and he says this, I will for all
of this be required of, inquired of by the house of Israel to
do it for You're going to come and ask
Me to do it for you. I don't know how many times since
the Lord's given me a new heart that I've asked Him for one.
Do you ever pray that? Oh, I mean, you feel so messed
up in your life and you begin to say, do I even have a new
heart? How could I have a new heart?
And you go to Him in prayer and say, Lord, give me a new heart.
Give me a new heart. I will yet be inquired of. You
know what he does sometimes? He sets these doors right in
front of us, and he says, now you knock, and I'll open it. He hides these precious treasures
right in front of us, and he says, now if you'll seek, you'll
find. Don't he do that? And when he
does that, that shows us that he has these things. He has everything
that we'd ever need or want or desire. And it shows His willingness
to give us these things. Because He says, look, ask and
seek, and you'll find. And it shows our utter dependence
upon Him to receive them from Him. Can't get them any other
way, can we? My Son, ask of Me. And if Christ is said to ask
of His Father, how much more should you and I ask of Him?
Ask of Him. He wants us to ask. And if He's
put it upon your heart to ask Him, then ask Him. But here's
the amazing thing. He said this, Ask of Me, and
look at this, I will give thee the heathen for thy inheritance
and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. Now
this is amazing. What would He want with a heathen? It sounds to me like it's just
not a very good inheritance. Here you've got a bunch of heathens.
You know who that was? That was the Gentile world, wasn't
it? And they were lurking around
in darkness. They'd been led astray by the
devils, worshipping all of these dumb idols. And now here the
Father says, My son, if you'll ask Him, I'll give you those
lurking, sinful, wretched heathens. What would He want with a bunch
of heathens? You know something? It's not
always what something's worth. You know sometimes what puts
value upon something is who gave it to you. My son, ask of me
and I'll give you the heathen. You heathens, you're not worth
very much. I'll be honest with you. In and of yourself, you're
just not worth very much. But here's the way you estimate
your value. The Father gave you to the Son. to save you. I have a little
knife, a little Case XX knife that I keep in my desk drawer.
And sometimes I'll get that knife out and it just, my heart bubbles
over with joy. I'll just get it out and look
at it and sometimes open it and shut it back. None of you put
together, sell your houses, sell your vehicles and pool all your
money, you couldn't buy that knife from me. You know why? My dad gave me that knife. And I remember his eyes when
he looked at me, and I remember the love in his eyes. He bagged
that knife and he said, Son, I'm giving this to you. And nobody's
getting it. That's what makes the heathen
so valuable, you see. They're the gift of the Father
to the Son. That's why he said, It will cost
me my blood. But I'm not going to lose a wand
that the Father has given to me. Own your soul. Don't ever
believe that Jesus will lose what the Father has given Him.
If I lost that knife that my dad had given me, I'd be heartbroken. I'd feel almost that I'd betrayed
His trust and His love. Would we believe that about the
Son of God? Oh, he says what? Oh, what a
chief glory. He said, they're mine. They're
mine. Why? Because the Father gave
them to me. And this earth, I'll give you the uttermost parts
of this earth. My goodness, heaven was His.
Here we are on this little old tiny celestial ball, this earth,
and it's cursed with sin. Devils fill this place. Why would
he want this place anyway? The uttermost parts of the earth.
I tell you, sometimes it's just prospect, ain't it? It's just
prospect. Yeah, the devil's footprints
are everywhere we look. The ground is cursed by sin and
the judgment of God. But you know something? The Lord
Jesus looks upon it like this. What can I do with this? My Father
has given me this. What can I do with it? And you
know what He's going to do with it? He's going to purge it. He's going to wash it. He's going
to make it new. There's going to be a new heaven
and a new earth, and nothing is going to be left in it but
righteousness. You won't see a footprint. You
won't see a scent of sin. All that will be is a pleasant,
righteous place for the saints and the angels to visit and to
live in. Oh, it's a gift of the Father
and prospect. You wait till he gets through
with some of you. He'll wait till he gets through with us.
He looks at you now and, oh, your poor bodies. We're growing
old. We're having aches and pains.
We're breaking down, aren't we? Going tomorrow to a dear friend's
funeral. And I'll probably bend over and
kiss his forehead because he's a dear friend. But He's laying
there lifeless. They're going to put Him back
in the ground and probably these worms inside of Him are already
trying to start working. He's going to decay. He's going
to corrupt. But the Lord Jesus looked at that body and said,
that's the gift of my Father to me. And you wait until He's
finished with it. It will be a glorious body. No
sin, no taint, just like the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, that's
why he glories in this. That's why he said, I glory in
these heathens because they're a gift of my Father. Oh, wait
till I'm finished with this earth. It'll be a glorious place. A
righteous, righteous place. Oh, your soul may be burdened
now, dear soul. May be in a warfare now. Your
body may be bowing with pain and aches. But, oh my, wait till
your Savior's finished with it. And I tell you what, He'll finish
it, too. He'll finish it, too. He ain't going to lose it. He
ain't going to stop short. He'll finish the work because
it's the gift of His Father. Christ is going to do two things
with the heathen. Look in verse 9. The Father's
given Him the heathen, every one of them. Given Him the uttermost
parts of the earth. And He tells us here He's going
to do two things with them. Look in verse 9. Thou shalt break
them with a rod of iron, That's the first thing. The second thing,
thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel. Two things
he's going to do to fulfill the Father's word and his design. First of all, he's going to break
them. He's going to break them. This
is what I want. We were talking about it this
morning when Terrence was telling me what he taught in the Sunday
school class. Those Jews in Acts chapter 2. When Peter says, you've
taken them by wicked hands, you've slain, you've crucified the Lord.
And what did they do? Man, they were broken, weren't
they? They cried out, men and brethren,
what in the world are we going to do? We have killed the Son
of God. We're awful, ungodly sinners.
We deserve to be in hell this moment. Is there any mercy? Is
there grace to save us? What shall we do? Whose work
was that? Right here. You're going to give
me the heathen, and I'm going to break them with my rod of
iron. Moses had that big old wooden
pole, and man, he did a lot of things with that, didn't he?
But he couldn't do what Christ did with his rod of iron. That
gospel breaks people. The Lord Jesus comes to you,
the fear you set, and your heart's so hard, And He comes to you,
and just by word, just a word, He breaks your heart. Makes you
to know you're a sinner in need of mercy. And you know what He
does when He breaks your heart? He heals the heart. He heals
the broken heart. He never does break a heart,
but what He heals. If He breaks your heart, He'll
heal your heart. He'll do. I'll break them. That's
the first thing. He's going to justify the heathen.
He's going to save the heathen. Secondly is this. And look at
this. This is sort of dreadful. I don't even want to talk about
this, but it's here. He shall dash them in pieces like a potter's
vessel. That's a dreadful thing, isn't
it? He breaks some of them. He breaks them. He saves them.
Breaks them and heals them. I kill and I make alive. I wound and I heal. Here, he's
going to dash them in pieces. They had a place that they used
to take their old pottery. Either a hole or a field, they'd
take their pottery. And when they got it there, they'd
take the rods and they would bust that pottery and expose
it to the elements. And there it would lay. It was
fit for nothing. It was just old, dry pottery. Couldn't be remolded, couldn't
be broken down, couldn't be recycled. It was fit for nothing. Isn't this a dreadful thing to
think about? There's two things here that's so dreadful to think
about. First of all, that the Lord Himself would liken any
man to pottery that can't be redefined, can't be defined,
can't be remodeled, Recycled. All you can do with it is just
take it over there to that hole or that field and just crush
it to pieces. Isn't that sad? That's furious. That's fearful. To think that
this is going to happen to some people. And the second thing,
when you think who's going to do it. The Father said, Some of
the heathen you're going to break. Others, you're going to dash
in pieces. What does that tell us? Men's
going to be saved by Christ. Or they're going to be damned
by Christ. And the most heart-wrenching
thing that I can think of, that here is the Savior. And He said
to be gentle. He said to be meek and lowly
in His heart. And now what's He doing? He's
destroying people. He's beating them to pieces.
He's crushing them under His feet. And you know, as sad as
it is and as awful as it is, you can prove that everywhere
in the Scriptures. He says to His angels, bind Him
hand and foot and cast Him into everlasting darkness. These shall
go away. Where are they going, Lord? Into
the lake of fire. Depart from Me, ye workers of
iniquity. And who says that? the Son of
God. We read about the wrath of God,
and that's bad enough. But the wrath of the Lamb, when His mercy is abused, when men and women are indifferent
to His goodness and will not yield to Him, and says, Go your
way when we have a convenient season, and they stir up His
wrath. I told my son the other day,
living in sin, living in open sin, and I told him, I said,
Buddy, listen, you're inviting the Lord to destroy you. You're inviting Him to destroy
you. Wayne read it to us. For this
cause, the wrath of God cometh upon the children of disobedience.
People think that they can live in sin and serve their sin, and
they've heard that it doesn't matter because we're not saved
anyway. It does matter. It does matter. How many young
people has the Lord cut off in their sins and because of their
sins? For this calls the wrath of God
to come. And when you think of this, this
tender Savior, Jesus of Nazareth, The One that has been so kind
and forgiving and merciful to so many. When He stands in front
of you and says, I'm going to damn you for your sins. I tell you, that's horrifying.
That's heart-wrenching. Heart-wrenching. Well, let's finish it up. Look
what He says here in verse 10. Be wise now, therefore. Be wise now, therefore. You know one of the reasons,
brothers and sisters, we don't preach like so much of this little
weak stuff that we're hearing today. How many preachers have
you heard say, the Lord ain't going to destroy anybody, you
destroy yourself? Have you ever heard that? The
Lord doesn't send anybody to hell. They send themselves there.
I know their sin is the cause of it, but no man ever sent himself
to hell. No man ever destroyed himself.
It's the Lord that will bring judgment upon an individual.
That's why He turns to you and says, listen, since I've been
teaching you what I've taught you in this psalm, you better
be wise. If you've got a little God up
in heaven and He's trying to do something in Cain, And He's
trying to save you, but He can't. And He's trying these things,
but He can't. Alright, you go ahead. You're the boss. You're
the master. But if you've got this God of
purpose, you've got this sovereign God that's ruling and reigning
and turning everything over to His Son, some of them He's going
to save and others He's going to damn, you knowing this, you
better listen. And you better be wise. And you
better do it now. Better do it now. There's going to have to come
a now in people's lives. There's something inside of us
that wants to procrastinate tomorrow. Boy, the next time I hear a message,
I'm going to seek the Lord. The next time, there must come
a now. And how many people have left
the gospel and said, perhaps next time, when I have a more
convenient season. And the Lord destroyed them.
Be wise now. Solomon said a son left to himself
brings his mother to shame. And I tell you what, if a person
is going to be so stubborn and rebellious and indifferent against
the Word of God and not receive the instructions, he is going
to bring himself to shame and ruin. Receive instructions, he said,
and do it now. Do it now. Look what he says
in verse 11. Serve the Lord. Old Bob Dylan
wrote a song. You're going to have to serve
somebody. That's the true thing. He said you've served yourself
long enough. You've served your sin long enough. You've served
the devil long enough. Cut all of that loose. Cut all
of that off. And serve the Lord. A lost person
came up to Ralph Barnard one time and said, Brother Barnard,
I want to serve the Lord. He said, Do it. We told him about
it. Do it! And do it this way. Serve Him
with humble reverence. Serve him with fear and rejoice
with trembling. And notice what he says in verse
12. Boy, here's good instruction. Kiss the son. Kiss the son. Kiss his feet. That's what
he wants you to kiss, is it not? That's where we start out. I
ain't a kiss of nobody's feet. You better kiss his feet. You
either kiss his feet or you'll be crushed by his feet. That's
about the only two options you have. There's a lady that came
to him and kissed his feet. And she heard the words of his
mouth, Woman, your sins are forgiven. You start with kissing his feet.
Bow down and kiss his feet. Kiss those hands that were crucified
for your sins. Kiss the wounds. Kiss his lips
that speak words of grace. Kiss his mouth. that will reveal
your eternal destiny. Come, you blessed of my Father,
or depart. You're cursed. Kiss the Son. And you know what you have to
do if you kiss somebody? You have to get close to them, don't you?
And you know something else about kissing somebody? The person
you kiss is really going to know if you kiss them. There's been
times I've kissed my wife and she didn't kiss me back. You
ever had that to happen? The Lord knows when you kiss
Him, if you mean it. Judas kissed Him. He didn't mean
it, did he? He knows. Come and kiss Him. Come and kiss Him. And say, You're
my husband. I've rejected, I've refused,
I've divorced my others. You're my husband. and seal it
with a kiss. Kiss Him. I ain't going to do
it. Well, you may not. You may not. He may let you go
on. And you'll rebel you to not kiss
Him. But I'll tell you this, I'll tell you what He's going
to do. You don't come and kiss Him, I'll tell you what He's
going to do to you. His wrath is going to be stirred
up. Just a little bit. Just a little bit. Ain't that
what he said? Lest he be angry. And you perish from the way when
his wrath is kindled but a little. Here's what you do. Put all your
trust in him. Just give yourself up to Jesus
Christ. Put all your trust, all your
confidence in Him. Just cast yourself upon Him. And He'll catch you. And He'll
save you. And He'll heal your soul. And
He'll forgive all your sins. Lord, help you to do it. Let's
pray.