Psalm chapter 2, let's read it
together. Why do the heathen rage? Why do the people imagine a vain
thing, useless, empty thing? The kings of the earth, they
set themselves. The rulers take counsel together
against the Lord and against His anointed, Let us break their
bands asunder, And cast away their cords from us. He that
setteth in the heavens shall laugh, The Lord shall have them
in derision. Then shall he speak unto them
in his wrath, And distress them, vex them in his swordish pleasure. 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 will 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, and thou shalt dash them
in pieces like a potter's vessel. Be wise now, therefore. O ye
kings, be instructed, ye judges of the earth, serve the Lord
with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest he be angry,
and you perish from the way, when his wrath is kennel but
a little. Blessed are all they that put
their trust in him. Why do the heathen rage? Why does the heathen rage? We're
living in a day when so many people are filled with anger.
So many people are agitated. They manifest it in their words,
sometimes their gestures, sometimes their deeds. Why do the heathen
rage? If you ask them, find somebody
and ask him this question, why are you raging? Why are you so
agitated? Well, he may tell you this. Some
may say this. They're angry at the church. I'm angry at the church. Why
are you angry at the church? Well, the church is full of hypocrites. And that agitates me. Well, I
apologize for my hypocrisy. God knows I have it, and I've
repented over it and shed tears over it. But what does my hypocrisy
do to put you in a range? What does the hypocrisy of those
in the church do to make you so agitated? Don't you have some
hypocrisy about you yourself? It makes me agitated to see hypocrites
in the church. I don't know where you'd find
a man in the church or out of the church who is totally without
God. Is that what's agitating people?
Well, it's not that. The church is full of charlatans.
The church is full of liars and people who defraud other people. I utterly deny that. If there's
anybody in this congregation this morning who professes the
Lord Jesus Christ, and you are a charlatan, you are a fraud,
you just live to take advantage of other people, I for one, being
the pastor, if I find out about your shenanigans, I'll read the
press and have a new excommunicated from this congregation. I utterly
deny that the church is full of such people. Don't hold up
such people like Benny Hinn and Oral Roberts and say that's the
church. The church has always stood against
those people and always will. That's not the face of the church. I tell you, when the Lord saves
a person, he's not a charlatan anymore. He's not a liar anymore. He doesn't defraud people anymore. His delight is to walk in the
truth. Well, that makes me angry, and
I'm in a rage because of these people in the church. Well, somebody
else would say, I see such people in the church who are spotted,
and they have blemishes, and I just don't want to be among
people like that. Well, that's strange, isn't it?
That you don't want to be among people like that, You have family
members. You have friends. You have co-workers
that's not only spotted and speckled, but they're utterly black in
their hearts. And you're companions with them. You're just picking on the Lord's
little children to find fault with them. Why are you in a rage?
Why are you agitated? Why does a heathen rage? Well, maybe they say this, I
don't like what they're saying over there. Well, what are they
saying? Well, they keep talking about a sovereign God, that He does what He pleases
in the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of this earth.
And that sends me into a rage when I think about that. And if they didn't press the
point and make an issue out of it, it wouldn't bother me. But
they just insist that God is sovereign. And that agitates
me. Well, I don't like this when
they say this. God has already chosen those
He's going to save. He's even written their names
down in the Lamb's Book of Life. And I can't help it. I just hate
that. I just hate that. But don't the Bible say that? I don't know what the Bible says,
my sister told me. I just know how I feel, and I
don't feel that's right. So it agitates. It sends people
in a rage. What else do they say? That Jesus
Christ didn't die for those who finally perish. Well, don't the
Bible say He laid down His life for His sheep? Don't the Bible
say that God saw the travail of His soul and was satisfied,
and by His knowledge He would justify those for whom He died? Don't the Bible say that? I don't know what the Bible said.
But it sounds so lovely to me and so kind on Christ's part
when I think that He died for everybody without exception,
for those in hell as well as those in heaven. It may sound
kind. It may sound very loving, but
how just is it? What does it do to the justice
of God that He's received a ransom for the prisoner and now won't
let him go free? What does it say about the blood
of the dear Savior? That it has no more merit in
it, that it can be shed for a person and utterly in vain. Well, I still don't like it.
And when I hear it, it puts me in a rage. It agitates me. And I just can't help it. What
else do they say? They say all kinds of things
over there. They tell me that every man without
exception, as he comes from his mother's womb, is spiritually
dead. That he's not able to remedy
the awful situation that he finds himself in. That he is so helpless
and has no ability that he cannot, in and of himself, even come
to the Lord Jesus Christ to be saved. That God has to effectually
call him, has to give him life from the dead. And that just
agitates me when I hear that. Life from the dead, they tell
me. Why do the heathen reign? And
then they tell me this, and I almost feel like they're mocking me.
They tell me that I'm naked, that I'm exposed to justice,
and that all my righteousnesses that I'm attempting to clothe
myself with are nothing but filthy rags, and that I need the righteousness
of Jesus Christ to clothe my shame and justify me from all
my sins. Why do the heathen rage? And the way they talk about the
love of God over there, it sends me into fits. They talk about
it as though it's something special, as though it's particular and
peculiar and everlasting. And they say God does not love
everybody like this. That His love is set upon those
that He's given to His dear Son. And this puts me in a rage. Because
I believe you can separate yourself from the love of God. And I believe
that I can pluck myself out of His hands. And I know many who
have did it. And to hear otherwise puts me
into a rage. Why do the heathen rage? I keep hearing them say over
and over again that salvation is of the Lord. And it makes
me doubtful. And it makes me fearful. And
puts me in defense. Well, what do you imagine to
do about it? Since you're in such a rage and since you're
so agitated, what's your purpose? How are you going to handle what
they're doing and what they're saying? What are you going to
do about it? I'm going to keep on opposing it in my mind and
with my mouth, and I'm going to convince everybody that I
can that what they're saying over there is just not true. I'm going to tell people you've
got God's hands tied. I'm going to tell people you've
got God over a barrel. And He can't do anything until
you give Him permission. Your will is superior to His. He's seated up in heaven just
waiting and hoping that somebody will do something. Your will
is the deciding factor. That's what I'm going to tell
them. But what if all these things
are true that you've been hearing over there? What if they're true? All these things that you've
been raging about and agitated about and opposing, what if they're
true? What if the Bible does teach
that God has an eternal purpose? And what if the Bible does teach
that Jesus Christ never shed one drop of blood in vain, that
His death does secure only the elect of God? What if they're
telling you the truth that you are dead in trespasses and sins?
And you can't come except God teach you and draw you and effectually
work it? What if they're telling you the
truth that you can't keep yourself from Satan and sin for one moment? If you're left to yourself, he'll
overwhelm you. The world will drown you into
utter and eternal perdition. What if that's true? then your purpose to oppose the
church is not really in opposition to them, but it's in opposition
to God himself. And your purpose to oppose them
and to speak against them is vain. It's empty. It will not stand. Ain't that what he said? Why
do the heathen rage? Well, we know, don't we? And
why do they imagine such a vain thing that they can oppose their
Creator and win the day? Look in verse 2. Look at the
people who have tried this before. There have been some great people,
some mighty people. that have tried to live in opposition
to God before. And look here, Adam, in verse
2, the kings of the earth. I'm not a king, and there's no
kings here. Most of the people that oppose
the Lord in His work are not kings, but there have been kings
who set themselves and rulers who took counsel together against
the Lord and against His Christ. Brothers and sisters, we err
when we put our trust in people that have a lot of power and
authority in our society. We err when we put our confidence
in presidents and governors and politicians and heads of state. These are often the very ones
that oppose Jesus Christ and His cause. They're the very ones
that assail themselves to the highest bidder. And it's ridiculous
for us to put our trust in these people. Kings and rulers. Oh, we want to find somebody
that's earnest. We want an earnest man so we
can put our trust in his zeal. But he has zeal without knowledge.
We want to trust in the mighty for their ability, in the wise
for their counsel, and in the rich and famous for their influence. And you know what the Bible says
about that. Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, or maketh
flesh his help. To trust in the arm of flesh. Somebody gave me a little book
a few years ago. And it was for pastors. And I don't know why they gave
me this book. I imagine they thought I needed help. Well,
I need help, but I didn't need this kind of help. He said, the
first thing you do when you get your degree, he said, get acquainted with
the local politicians. And if you're able to and have
time, serve on the town board. And he went into this big spill,
how that you should go out in the community and join with these
politicians and be involved in it as the pastor. I read an article on Billy Graham's
crusades when they first started. He determined, him and his people
determined, that wherever they went on a crusade, there were
some things they were going to require those men who sponsored
them. They were going to require this
out of those men in the community. They had to go to the politicians
in that community, the mayors, the state representatives, the
state senators, and the sheriff, the chief of police. They had
to go to all these men and give them a special invitation to
come to the Graham crusade. And they always reserved the
front seats for those fellows. I wonder if those 120 saints
in the upper room sat down and wrote a letter to Pilate or to
Herod or to the president of the Sanhedrin court and said,
we're having a worship service over here on Pentecost and we'd love for you
guys to join us. Did they do that? When the Apostle
Paul and Silas went to Philippi, where did they go to when they
entered that city? The Scripture says they met a
group of women out on the riverbank and they preached to them and
had prayer. The only thing that was said
about the rulers of that town was they whipped Paul and Titus
and Silas and threw them into jail. Brothers and sisters, it's these
kind of men. that have often been the chiefs
in opposing the Lord Jesus Christ. Why do the heathen rage? The
kings set themselves. And notice this here in the last
part of verse 2, who these kings and rulers were against. Were
they against the church? Were they against the Christians?
We're out to take oppositions too personally sometimes, aren't
we? We'll quote a verse of Scripture to somebody and they'll be upset
with us and we'll go boo-hooing, Lord, Lord. You know what they
said to me. Lord, look what they've done
to me. Would you plead my cause? It's not about you. These men
aren't ultimately against the church. They're against Christ. They are against the Son of God.
They are against God the Father. In Acts chapter 4, the apostles
there were threatened. The Sanhedrin said, Don't you
ever let us hear you even mention the name of Jesus of Nazareth
again. And you better not preach that
He rose from the dead. And you better not preach that
we crucified Him and His blood is on our hands. You better keep
your mouth shut. Now this is a promise. If we
hear you mention His name one more time, we're going to beat
you. We're going to beat you. And
they went back to church. They got to church together. And one of the apostles got up
to pray. And he quoted this psalm. He
quoted this psalm. He didn't say, Lord, look what
they're doing to us. Look how they're threatening
us. But he quoted this psalm, the kings of the earth set themselves
against the Lord and against His Christ. They're not against
us. The only reason they're opposing
us to our face, they can't get to His face. That's why. But it's Him they're against,
not His church. Notice verse 3 in Psalms chapter
2. This is so important. This is
so critical. Here it tells us what the whole
issue is about. Do you want to know what the
issue is between the sinner and Christ? Do you want to know what
it is? I'm sure you do. Let us break
their bands asunder and cast away their cords from us. Their bands and their cords. God's bands and God's cords. This is the problem sinners have
with God, and it's the problem they have with that salvation
that's in Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Ever since Adam and Eve
rose up in the garden and said this, ultimately, we want to
be the captain of our own souls. Isn't that basically what they
said? We want to write our own rules. We want to live and do and think
and believe what makes us happy. We want to be the masters of
our fate. Ever since then, men and women
and boys and girls have been saying with Pharaoh, who is the
Lord, that I should obey Him. That's the issue, is it not?
And they have been saying with the Jews, we will not have this
man to reign over us. We will not submit to his cords. We will not submit to his commandments,
his gospel, his law. Depart from us. We will not submit. They have no trouble with Satan's
bands or the cords of man, only the rule of God and His Christ. That's where they find their
problem. Man will serve Satan every day, won't he? And happy
to do it. He'll wear himself out. He'll
weary his poor mind in the service of Satan and never complain about
it. He'll go to the bars and he'll
get drunk and he'll get sick and the next day he'll do it
again and never complain about it. But oh, talk about the rule of
Christ's King. Talk about the Word of Christ. What He demands. I ain't doing
that. I'm not submitting to that. You
ain't about to tell me what I should and shouldn't do and what I should
and shouldn't believe. I will not. And note this. Notice how arrogant
and presumptuous they are. Look what they say. Let us. That's
all we need is an opportunity. Just let us. We can do it. Just let us. Let us rip their
bands into little threads and let us cast away utterly their
cords from us. You guys can do that. You're
able to do that. That's easy said. But you're
able to do that. You can defeat the purposes of
the Almighty. You can thwart the will of a
sovereign Savior who says this, all power is given to me in heaven
and in earth. You can do that. You can defeat Him who sent the
sun backwards, who divided the depths of the sea in two and
made it stand up as walls. Are you sure you can do that?
You seem awful sure. Let us. They have these cords. Just let us break them. They
have these bands. Let's just cast them asunder.
It seems so easy. Jesus Christ speak and demons
tremble. Waves lay down like little puppy
dogs. The wind ceases. And when He
reveals His face, the heavens and the earth will flee away.
And you can come up into His face and say, I'm going to break
your bands. I'm going to cast your cords
away. That's awful presumptuous, isn't
it? I think it is because of the
Lord's response. Look in verse 4. Here's His response
to all of this bragging and all of this arrogance and ignorance.
He that setteth in the heavens shall laugh, and he shall have
them all in derision." There's God's response. Is He afraid? Is He wringing His hands? Is
He adjusting His purposes? Is He seeking another plan, B
or C or D? Is He pleading? No. What's He doing? He that setteth in the heavens. God is so resolved in His purpose
and so firm in His will and so confident in His power and His
wisdom, He doesn't even so much as pay them the respect to stand. He sits. If you come into my
house, no matter who you are, I'll probably stand up. Sometimes
I let Jehovah's Witnesses in my house. I have to stand up
to do it. God don't stand up for those
who threaten Him. He just sits. He sits. He's not afraid, is He? He's
not disturbed. What does this sitting seem to
signify? Solitude? Quietness? He rules this way over his creation,
this universe that cannot be measured for its vastness. He rules it. The stars that are
innumerable, he's got them all named. He walks through the depths
of the sea. That's his path. He rules this terrestrial ball
that you and I call earth. He sets the bounds of the sea,
and he commands his angels. He let them fall, and he has
power over all flesh, and the king's heart is in his hand. And there's not a worm that wiggles
or a bird that flies or a piece of sand in the air, but he doesn't
ruin it. And he does it all while he's
sitting. He doesn't raise his voice. He
doesn't bark orders. He just wills it while He's sitting. Oh, dear child of God, let this
calm your troubled soul. Let this give peace to your poor
back spirit and dispel your cares and your fears as you face a
frowning world. Your God and Savior is sitting
in heaven. And He laughs at everything and
anything that seeks your hurt. And you notice what He said here.
He didn't say set it in heaven. We know He's there. That's His
throne. But He sits in the heavens. In
the heavens. He's everywhere. Wherever He
is, He's sitting. He's ruling in absolute sovereignty. and absolute power. Hold that passage and turn back
over to your left in the book of Job, just to your left, and
look in chapter 5 and verse 8. Job chapter 5 and verse 8. I would seek unto God, and unto
God would I commit my cause, which doeth great things and
unsearchable, marvelous things without number, who giveth rain
upon the earth." Man, is that marvelous? That's what he said. He does marvelous things. He
gives rain. You try it. We can't do it, can we? Never
read that the angel could do it. Little drops of rain coming
down to soften the earth. That's marvelous. And he does
it. He sends water upon the field
to set up on high those that be low, that those which mourn
may be exalted to safety. He disappointeth the devices
of the crafty so that their hands cannot perform their enterprises. He taketh the wise in their own
craftiness and the counsels of the forward is carried headlong. They meet with darkness in the
daytime and grope in the noonday as in the night. But he saveth
the poor from the sword, from the mouth and from the hand of
the mighty. So the poor hath hope and iniquity
stoppeth her mouth. Look in another place, right
on over to your left, in 1 Samuel. This was the prayer of a dear
woman after the Lord had given her a child. Look in 1 Samuel,
chapter 2. Look here what the Lord did.
I'm telling you, brothers and sisters, He's sovereign. He rules
His enemy with power. He rules His people with grace.
Here is one hand I said after the Lord had given her a job. Verse 2, There is none holy as
the Lord. There is none beside thee, neither
is there any rock like our God. Talk no more so exceeding proudly. Let not arrogance come out of
your mouth, for the Lord is a God of knowledge, and by Him actions
are weighed. The bowels of the mighty men
are broken, and they that stumbled are girded with strength. They
that were full have hired themselves for bread, and they that were
hungry ceased. So that the barren hath born
seven, and she that hath many children is wax feeble. The Lord
kills, and He makes alive. He bringeth down to the grave,
and He bringeth up. The Lord maketh poor, and he
maketh rich. He bringeth low, and he lifteth
up. He raiseth up the poor out of the dust, and lifteth up the
beggar from the dumb hill to set him among princes, and to
make them inherit the throne of his glory for the pillars
of the earth of the Lord. And he hath set the world upon
them." He's God. He's God. And when these arrogant
fellows begin to say, let us break their bands asunder and
cast their courts from us, he makes those men's devices of
none effect. He taketh the wise in their own
craftiness. Here's how Paul said it in 1
Corinthians, I'll destroy the wisdom of the wise. I will bring
to nothing the understanding of the prudent. Where is the
wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputers of this
world? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For
after that, in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew
not God. It pleased God for the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe. Look back in our text again.
He saideth in the heavens, and look what he does. Look what
he does. He's not disturbed. He sits there
in quiet solitude. And he chuckles. He chuckles. He laughs. He that sitteth in
the heavens shall laugh. I heard Brother Mahan say years
and years ago, he said, Pharaoh was so concerned about hanging
on to his kingdom. that he wanted to slay all the
little Jewish babies for fear that they were populating and
was going to overthrow him. And then he tucked that little
Jewish infant into his house, rocked him on his knee, and called
him grandson. And that very infant, the one
that was going to bring him down, and God lacked. And God lacked. Haman, the enemy of God's people,
built a gallows to hang Mordecai upon, and they hanged him on
that same gallows that he had built. And God laughed. Charles Spurgeon
talked about a prominent atheist there in England who opposed
the spread of God's Word. He died, and the London Bible
Society brought his property, and in his home, they made a
warehouse for their Bibles, and God laughed. He laughs. He sits and laughs. I worship
a God like that, don't you? I bow to a God like that. I submit to a God like that. He sat up and he laughed. Our God is sovereign and He rules
with ease. He rules with power. He rules
with wisdom. And He has no problem ruling
and disposing of His opposition. How does He dispose of them?
How does He deal with them? Does He get into rage? Does He
bark and scream? Verse 5 says He just speaks.
He just sits and speaks to them in His wrath. And when he speaks,
he vexes them in his sore displeasure. Oh, what a vain thing for a man
to imagine that he can break the bands of the Almighty and
cast his sovereign cords from him. Oh, the ignorance and the
perception. Many have tried it. Many have
tried to defeat his purposes. Many have tried to swerve him
out of his way, but nobody has ever did it. He laughs at them.
He laughs at them. When men have done what they
could and all they could, God's purposes, God's plans, and God's
will in the salvation of His people will be accomplished. Verse 6, what does it say? Yet
have I set myself. You did everything you could
to defeat him and stop him. Yet, I set my son upon my holy
hill of Zion. And that's where we'll pick up
tonight. Let me end this by a poem by a dear old man many, many
years ago. God moves in a mysterious way
his wonders to perform. He plants his footstep in the
sea. and he rides upon the storm.
Deep and unfathomable minds of never-failing skill, he treasures
up his bright designs and works his sovereign will. Ye fearful saints, fresh courage
take. The clouds you so much dread
are big with mercy and shall break with blessings on your
head. Judge not the Lord by feeble
sense, but trust him for his grace. Behind the frowning providence
he hides a smiling face. His purposes will ripen fast,
unfolding every hour. The bud may have a bitter taste,
but sweet will be the flower. Blind unbelief is sure to err
and scan his work in vain. But God is His own interpreter. He will make it plain. And blessed are all of those
who put their trust in Him. Let's pray.