Paston Ryan Denton continues his expository preaching series of the Gospel according to Mark. Covered in today's sermon is Psalm 1.
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All right, if you would please turn to your Bible to Psalm 2 What? What? Psalm 2. Let's do it. Let's look at Psalm 2 today. Psalm 2. You know, there's there's occasions where certain certain periods of Time or certain things that take place For instance, we were in El Paso about when was that five years ago? Whatever the shooting and the Walmart took place and that happened on a Saturday and I was preaching the next day and so when things you know, there's certain there's certain times when Things take place and you throw what you're working on out the window and you say, okay, look does God's Word Give us something regarding the situation that we are seeing in in our Contemporary scene and now we know that God's Word speaks to everything praise God, right? But there are times like an Assassination attempt, you know One of the most popular candidates out there that you know, you might need to just pause and say well wait a minute What is going on out here? What really is going on right and so and it's not only that I mean we we can look around and we can recognize there's an uptick in turbulence and an evil and in sin and we know It's probably going to get worse before it gets better. So we need to work from God That's where I as Christians, right? We turn to God's word. We say, okay Lord, what do you what do you what do you have on this and and when you live in a hostile world? Okay, and it's increasingly hostile and you're looking around and you're saying well wait a minute How exactly are we to respond to the scenario that we're in? How do you how do you respond to certain things? Well, we're good what we're gonna see today. Okay in song two song two points us to three things number one that when you do see these These things of turbulence evil darkness wickedness number one is don't be surprised by that That's what we're gonna see first of all don't be surprised by it number two It's not like God is not on his throne and that's the whole point, right? It's not like you know sometimes in your own life as well happens the same thing You look around and you wonder let's say in your own life and you're going through certain seasons of duress and difficulty and trial and you're looking around and you you wonder like is God does he see this is he is he with me? Where is he? Those are the questions that sometimes come up and we say well what what I mean does this God even care? Remember whenever you're we're dealing with God God. We call we call we say God is transcended God is holy God is up He's the lofty one. He's the exalted one. He's the one that saw his throne. He's the one that's being worshiped by angels They cry out what holy holy holy? But God is also the God who is what we call imminence That means that God is nearer to us than we are to ourselves that means that in God we live and move and have our Be remember Paul says that acts 17 so we look at God and we see okay. Well God is exalted. He's lofty He's he's worthy of reverence and praise and worship at all and yet at the same time We know that God is intimately involved in everything that takes place in this world Including our lives and including the things outside of our lives and these are manifested practically But there's behind the scenes there is a war there is a battle, but we know that Christ is on a stone That's the third thing. Okay, so number two don't think that God doesn't see right don't think that God isn't there So the first thing is don't be surprised as we'll see number two It's not that don't don't don't think that God is not very much involved or active in what is going on and number three Christ is king Crisis king we're not waiting for Christ to be Installed on his throne. He's already on his throne. He's already there and Psalm two Shows all of this and that's the beauty of it because sometimes I mean like sometimes you get so ticked off I get so ticked off by whether it's at home whether it's at work whether it's you see things being done in our society Politically culturally and it's very easy right to get in the flesh. It's very easy to be ticked off It's very and some of that's righteous indignation and there's a place for that But there's also a place where we recognize this is the beauty by the way of like imprecatory Psalms We look at David and David saying that God break their teeth, right crush my enemy We're like whoa man. Are you allowed to say that? Yeah, why because you're bringing it to God? You're saying God. David is not out crushing teeth David's not out there busting his enemies chops. He's turning to God and he says God you see what's going on You see the wickedness you see the evil do something respond Right, that's the beauty of having a God that is Very much aware of all things and a God who is king God who is judge because God's not like David I really wish I could man, but I you know, I'm not really in control of anything I mean I I'm only limited you know no we go to a God who is sovereign The God who is on his throne. So let's look through this at song two what we're gonna have here There's four stanzas in song two. Okay. There's four stanzas that every single time you get a new stanza There's a different speaker the speaker changes and so versus one through three, you're gonna see a worldwide conspiracy against God Birth through six you're gonna see God's response Seven through nine you're going to see God's decree regarding his son and the installment of christ on his throne and number four 10 through 12 you're going to see the invitation of God the loving invitation a very gracious invitation of God towards Unbelievers towards foolish people and he does so with love. It's amazing So you get like the whole gamut here in this one song. So let's look through this. We'll take it one stanza at a time This is song two one through three why do the nations rage and the people's plot of anything The kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers take counsel together Against the lord and against his anointed saying let us break their bonds and pieces and cast away their cords from us The very first look at the the very first word of the psalm is what why? Why it's a question, but notice the question is not a question that is is seeking an answer for this is called a rhetorical question What are they thinking that's what the phrase implies? Why is there this madness upon the earth? Why is there this rebellion? It's it's a it's a question being asked with amazement and astonishment Why who are you thinking you're coming up against and trying to trying to take down your opponent here? Who is the opponent here? Well, you have these kings and these rulers over the nations and they're trying to take down who what we see this in verse two The kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers take counsel together against the lord And against his anointed and they're saying certain things now. Here's the here's the problem that we're having here Okay, you look at this. This is the these are the leaders of the people These are the kings. These are the great ones. These are the mighty ones the leaders of the people And so the the the principal here is something like this It's from the greater to the lesser if it's taking place on the top You can be sure that it's taking place at the bottom as well Because the the people go along with the leadership at the top and so when you see their wickedness here You see that okay leaders differ do they not nation to nation people have different agendas people have different aims different goals But one thing that all leaders now not all leaders, but all godless leaders All unbelieving leaders have in common is what they're unified and their attempt to dethrone god And you see this this is what's what's I mean? You can say that this stands right here is a commentary on the history of the universe Whatever season whatever period of the universe that you're looking into you can go all the way back to babble You can go to before babble you can go to genesis chapter six when god looked upon the wickedness a man And he saw that every imagination or the thoughts of man's heart was only evil continually and what do they have in common? What do the people then have in common? What do the people at babble have in common? What do the people let's go to let's go to ancient role What do they have in common? the wickedness and that of gravity there's that there's That the aim is tearing the fetters look at what it says here. They want to inverse three They want to break their bonds and pieces. They want to cast away their cords from us. What is what does that mean? They want to cast away the moral restraint They want to cast away the fact that god is in charge. God is the great king. God is the ruler God is god and and they are not god pharaoh wanted that with moses, right? That's the And what you look at the scene today and and sometimes it's astonishing because you know, we act surprised It's like wait a bit. Have you not read the bible? This is the way it operates. This is the way things happen throughout history You have seen the ebbs and flows the ups and downs of history. Yes, the societies They rise they fall but what they all have in common is that if there is no god Then they are going to wage war against the people of god And they themselves are going to try to seek themselves position them themselves in the place of god This is what you're seeing. Okay, you're seeing this yesterday, but you're also seeing this if you go back Think of the the days of jesus This is encouraging too. I think I mean look You know, we see in america. There's a lot of political unrest The state the obvious Okay, but we think okay look now it's true for for us. I mean for you know Except for riley being a little older than us But we haven't really ever seen this right, so this is like, okay, this is new territory for us Is it not? But then you're like, okay. Wait a minute. Is it new territory for the history of the world? Is it new territory even for america? I mean america We do get in skirmishes every now that if you study american history, right? They're skirmishes. There's battles and sometimes they're very necessary and phrase god that they happen fought But here's what we see, right? So sometimes if you look into the history of the world, you do see like in the days of christ a lot of political turbulence But you also see okay, here's christ and we've seen this as we go through the gospel of mark What do you have you have christ going through and he's teaching and he's telling people about the messiah He's telling people about the kingdom of god and he's saying these things But behind the scenes what's going on? Well, you have the Pharisees you have the sageses You have the Herodians you have people who are otherwise enemies, but they're yoking together They're linking up together. They're unifying in order to bring down christ Okay, they're trying to light well because christ is coming in with these these these new concepts These new ideas and it's not necessarily new But for them it's new because they've been running the show the whole time and christ is coming in and he's he's reminding them Listen guys, you are not god. You are under authority They don't want that so what do they do? Well, they sure they tried to break their balls They try to cast away their course by doing what by killing christ by killing the messiah. This is this is Very typical you can say You know if you study communism, that's exactly communism always goes after the church Today we live in our nation the state religion is secular humanism Okay, man is god man is king. So what does that mean? Well anytime that god's law or god's word or god's people come in and then and they say well wait a minute You know here's here's what god's word says on that they say well why are you trying to why are you trying to put bonds on me? Why are you trying to wrap cords around me? Why are you trying to remove my freedom as a human being? I'm free to do whatever I want with my body, right? I'm free to do whatever I want with my life I'm free to and you say no you're not And they try to break that off they try to get rid of those things And so what we're seeing here is that the gravity of man that a gravity of man has always been a thing And wherever there's a large you can say a large population of of of dare I say god haters What's going to happen? Well, the god haters are going to yoke together in order to attempt to bring down god and as anointed You see, okay. So here's here's what we do we look we stand back And we we we we're looking at the scene and we're saying okay. Well, wait a minute This is notice what it says in verse one and here's the hope in the encouragement of song two Why do the nations rage and the people plot a what? A very promising thing. No, it's a vain thing It's a futile thing It's a thing that's not going to happen. You can't bring down johova god god almighty You can't do it and there have been seasons in the history of humanity where it looks like oh, yeah They're making a lot of progress in this direction And it could be the case. I mean, could you imagine if you're if you're no a preacher of righteousness for 120 years or whatever And you're out here building the ark and everything and you're seeing that a gravity you're seeing the wickedness Don't you think there were times that Noah? I don't know. I mean may I being human might have thought well god, you know Where are you man? I mean, this is there's a lot of wickedness around me Tower of battle, but all the wild gods light look this I got it under control Everything's going to be fine. Everything's okay. There's a process here all history is church history because it's all moving Towards a direction that is ultimately going to glorify god and even in the process and in the moment is glorifying god But the point is is as this has taken place people are saying they want to dictate their own morality They want to dictate their own sexuality They want to dictate how their marriage operates and what kind of husband i'm going to be or what kind of wife i'm going to be And I don't want to you know, you have you have no business telling me god has no business getting into my business When all the while it's always business Which leads me to something though, let me pause here and say this look One of the tricky areas here is this okay as we look across the political atmosphere And it's pretty easily You can see the line is drawn in the sand and you have one side and you have the other side It's pretty clear right because of the polarization. There's really no gray area anymore And so that's that's that's good in some sense, but here's what happens. Here's what can happen. Okay We can look at our We can look at purple. We can look at the other side And we can say you know what these these people are our enemies Okay, and we'll get to that at the end But then all of a sudden in doing so we start to exalt ourselves because we're on the right side Okay, if you're on the right side politically that begins to take the place. Um, well wait a minute When we talk about when we talk about one through three and we say oh, yeah, man These kings are wicked. I see a lot of that in our country right now I see these crazy liberals and they're doing this and that right now. I see it right here One through three is talking about them But then we forget okay How often you know when we sin or when we have self-sufficiency or when we when we have pride or what we have we have Uh things that we should forgive and we don't forgive or grudges or whatever that is Anytime we sin especially high-handedly Are we not doing the same thing they're doing? Are we not saying let us break their bonds in pieces and cast away their courts from us? Whenever we chafe against the word of god even as christians Whenever we're looking through there, we're like, yeah, I know what god's word says, but i'm not going to follow that I'm not going to do that. I don't like what it says so i'm going to ignore that passage And i'm just going to go on to the next passage We're doing the exact same thing that we're accusing others of doing You see how tricky that is you see how wicked and deceitful the heart can be Because we're over here in our self-righteous fair circle mindset say look at these nasty crazy wicked purple hair liberals But then in our own life Do we do the same thing? Well, not like they do No, but do we do the same thing? Yeah, we do right. We ourselves often daily hourly Are confronted by a nature a sin nature. Yes, that has been sanctified by god That has been subdued by god, but that in many ways still wants to break the bonds of christ and pieces and cast away the cords Of christ away from us right because it's too constricting. We want to run our life. We have we want to be autonomous We want it. We don't want anybody raining over us Right is it just me? I mean, I know that's true in my life It's like hey, you know, I I can condemn those other stuff other side all day long, but then you know when my wife reminds me of doing something Well, you don't have to say that honey. Don't even bring that. It's not, you know, no, I have what about our sin What about your sin? See, it's easy sitting over here in the corner, right? We're like, yeah, I mean, let's pick on the liberals all day Let's have a good time. They shot they shot trump and granted. That's that's that's wicked. That's at the top But what about us see that Okay, let's look at this next this next stanza here. God's response God's response God's not then this is where we get to the hope, you know There's encouragement because sometimes again we think well because God's not doing something or he's not acting as quickly as we want him to act We've got it now intervene for God because God's too slow like Abraham Well, God goes to Abraham Abraham. I promise you're gonna have a child man. Just chill just relax weight. It's gonna happen You know 10 years go by 11 years go by he's like god, you know what? Forget it. I got it from here I got it. Hey gar, let's go, you know, and it's like well, wait a minute Okay, how often do we do that and here's God on his throne and here's the response four through six He who sits in the heavens shall laugh The word the Lord shall hold them in derision Then he shall speak to them in his wrath and distress them in his deep displeasure And this is what he says yet. I have set my king on my holy hill of xyle You notice he says laughs God laughs and you're thinking okay. Well, wait a minute. I'm thinking what kind of what do you mean? Lab how often do you hear the bible? God laughs? You don't hear that, you know, sometimes we want to make God out to be some kind of grandpa that goes around Belly laughing all the time, but he's not that way we know and even here This is not a laugh of hilarity. This is not a laugh that you laugh at whenever you listen to a comedian or whatever This is a laugh of derision and it tells us as much the Lord shall hold them in derision This is a laugh of irony. This is a laugh of Of God first of all who seated on his throne. So he's in a posture of authority. He's not freaking out. He's not pulling his air He recognizes okay. Yes, there is opposition. There are opponents But what in the world are they thinking? Because they can't win this they're not they're not they can't even make it diss It's almost and there's a lot of analogies and illustrations But you think of tumbleweeds and they're flying up and let's say there's a forest where I uh, you know One of these grass fires or whatever what happens to tumbleweeds whenever they encounter fire Well, they're absent. They're absolutely pulverized and it's something like this. Here's a pile of tumbleweeds And they're they're thinking hey, let's go and wage war on this consuming fire Well, how's that gonna turn out? It's not right. I mean you like okay. Well, wait a minute, but that's what this is like This is this is the attempt of people who have have absolutely no chance in the universe of actually even making a dent And the plans of god the progress of god the sovereignty of god the person of god And yet in our foolishness our foolishness. Yes, the the foolishness of unbelievers But I mean most of us here are not unbelievers. We're believers So let's let's be practical here right in our foolishness as well How often do we get high ended with god and want to bring down god? But that's true especially for people who are outside of christ they want to bring down god god is laughing There's this this laugh of of irony of mockery of disdain you're attempting to overthrow god How could you even how could you fathom? How could you possibly even think of that now? What happens is we know this people will say well, I'm not really trying to like supplant god here I'm not trying to bring down god. I'm just trying to you like well wait a minute yet. Yes, you are Right anytime you you you want to operate without god That's an attempt to overthrow god It has to be Now you can't do it But that's that's that's kind of what we're saying. That's what they're saying now. He scops You notice the worst scoffs. He's he's scoffing. He's holding them in derision. There's There's hope here. You know why because it shows us that god's not a robot God is not the god of bale. Remember Elijah and he's going and he's mocking the priest the high priest of bale And they're cutting themselves and they're screaming out, you know, and it lies just like well Where's your god, man? Where is you know, is he going to the bathroom? Is he sleeping? Yeah, he's like cry louder. He can't think maybe he can't hear you cry loud. They're like, ah, you know, they're shrieking and hollering That's not the god of the bible That's not the god of the universe and you see that here because again, sometimes we think well is god not there Is he not listening? Is he not seeing what's going on? God is very much aware of what's going on This is where our hope lies you see that again. It's not about taking things into our control now. There is a place for Acting in accordance to the with the responsibilities that we have for sure But when it comes to vengeance when it comes to the things you see and there's this this indignation in this cell There's this rightful righteous indignation. It's like well. Where's the first place I go? I go to social media and just Unload and just vent to everybody who wants to listen about how right no That's not where the no the first place you go to is god and pour out your rage and pour out your frustration And that's not true. Just politically. That's true in your marriage. That's true with your bosses That's true with your children. You go to god and you pour your heart out to him Knowing he hears you and he's going to act and he's going to move. He's going to listen Verse five then you see the word then there verse five then now And he's just going through this you can see there's something here if you're an unbeliever If If you're an unbeliever this word then that one word should make the hair Stand up with the back of your neck then Because what it tells us here It's it's it's the idea of once the laughter subsides Once god has done Derighty the attempt to overthrow him and that's true on a big scale whether it's in the nations That's true on a small scale regarding unbelievers Once that laughter subsides then You don't want to hear then right because that means okay now it's time to act then God speaks in his anger And I heard one guy a long time ago and he said you know sometimes it's it's not It's not god in the hands of angry sinners It's sinners in the hands of an angry god if you know jonathan edwards the sermon You know sinners in the hands of an angry god god is not god is not out of he's not he's not perplexed He's not afraid of of angry sinners coming against him whether it's the other way around God is angry with the wicked every day and add a song to by the way I want to read a few verses because there's verses in song two Or there's expressions in song two that will have this ripple song to has a ripple effect through Especially the first part of the sulture. So as god speaks here in song two Some of the language that is used ripples throughout for instance song five saw him seven saw him 11 So here's a few instances. This is song five It's the same thing because again here you have cray a god the father He shall speak to them in his wrath and distress them in his deep displeasure This is song five for you are not a god who was pleased with wickedness With you evil people are not welcome the arrogant cannot Stand in your presence. You hate all who do wrong you destroy those who tell lies Psalm 11 says god is a righteous judge a god who displaces wrath every day if he does not relent He will sharpen his sword. He will bend and string his bow. He has prepared his deadly weapons He makes ready his flaming arrows. Whoever is pregnant with evil conceives trouble and gives birth to disillusionment Whoever digs a hole and scoops it out balls into the pit that they have made You know, they think they're doing something That's going to work out for them, but in the end it actually Turns out to not it's the opposite verse 16 the trouble they cause recoils on them their violence comes down on their own heads Here's the here's one from Psalm 11. The lord is in his holy temple The lord is on his heavenly throne. He observes everyone on earth his eyes examine them everyone on earth god's eyes examine you Now that's a great thing if you're in christ that's an encouraging thing That means god hears our prayers. He sees our needs but outside of christ what does that tell you you know I came across a guy about two or three years ago that Was baffled by the idea that god knows our inner thoughts and our desires and our affections and our wills and what's going through our head But isn't that the problem that we have? You know, it's not like god is just looking at your actions. That was the whole thing christ and the sermon on the map, right? They thought well rich young ruler. Hey, I've done that. I'm doing and christ says no, no, no What about your thought life? What about your heart? What about your inclinations? What about your motives? And this is the astonishing this is what makes christ so astonishing because when you see our affections and our motives and our desires And our inclinations and our will you have to admit I mean it's very rare If ever and we've had this we have this nice debate. I remember what like three years ago Caleb and you know we're talking about Is it possible is it even possible to go a millisecond of your life? Loving god with all your heart soul mind and strength and loving your neighbor as yourself That's the greatest commandment is it possible to even do that purely Without any kind of spot or blemish or sin or stain for even a millisecond I don't know I know that I know what the reformers always they said no way Augustine said no way But here's what you have right you look at christ. This is what makes christ amazing christ There was never a millisecond in his life when he did not love god The way he was called a love With all his heart soul mind and strength there was a never a millisecond christ life when he didn't love his neighbor as himself When he wasn't doing the will of the father is that not amazing? Which is why we trust in him and this which is why we look to him to be saved not ourselves But the point here is this what kind of god do we have we have a god who is righteous? We have a god who is holy we have a god who is good and we have a god who when the bible says things like He's angry with the wicked every day. We can praise him for that. Can we not? Can we say thank you god that you're not a god who indulges evil you're not a god who approves evil You don't affirm evil but rather is the opposite Every single sin in the history of the world is going to be punished by god Think of that every single sin there will never be a single sin That won't be punished by god And if we have just said if we've just established the fact that you and I have never got a millisecond of my life loving god with all our heart, soul, mind and strength That means there is not a a millisecond of my life that doesn't need the saving work of jesus christ The blood of jesus christ applied to it. Think of that not a millisecond of my life. Can I say hey christ I'm good that millisecond. I don't I don't need your blood there man I got that I got that millisecond was was me not a millisecond of our life Every millisecond of our life is dependent upon the blood of jesus christ Otherwise we ourselves are going to be punished for eternity Because god is a good and righteous and holy judge Okay, so what this is talking about here is when we see that god responds with and by the way look at anger here Look at this word anger I mean, this is a crucial word. So so in the new king james's is wrath. You might have anger What was he'll have there? anger anger angry This is the strongest word in the bible To express anger indignation wrath This is the idea of the flaring of the nostril The bull that's ready to charge the bull that's enraged. This is the response of a holy immaculate god towards evil Is something like fury is something like heat burning heat That's the word. That's the picture that that word can bathe there. That's what that word is about So now you start looking and you say well, wait a minute. Wait a minute. Okay. This is a great thing Unless you're outside of christ and if you're outside of christ, this is the most disastrous thing that can come upon a person Because now you're backed against a corner and you recognize okay Wait a minute if god is holy right to some good and i'm a sinner and i'm outside of christ Well, what's he gonna do with me now? I become the tumbleweed You see and god is the consuming fire now you're in a situation here where we get to the end and you're going to see be wise O kings turn to look turn turn to christ turn to the lord, but here before we get there You have to ask questions like well, are you right with god? What about what about your sin? What about what in what areas of your life are you holding on to sin and what areas of your life is their high-handed sin And what areas of your life do you need to repent do you need to bring these things to god? Lay them at his feet Now look at this idea of king in verse six yet i have set my king On my holy hill of zyle and now you're starting to see the response of god Right yet i have set my king so it's then he shall speak to them in his wrath Well when he begins to speak in his wrath, what does he say he says I have set my king on my holy hill Of zyle now the idea of christ kingship. This is from the west mr. Shorta catechism question 26. How does christ execute the office of king? Answer in subduing us to himself That means in conversion you take somebody who is rebellious somebody who doesn't want god at all somebody who is in this state You know this the raging against god upset with god gnashing against god god take someone like that And that's how we all were before we were christ He takes someone like that and he subdues him He changes him he changes his nature he changes his will he changes his affections everything about this man is changed The kingship of christ comes and subdues us. It also means in ruling in defending us Now that we're his right now with that we're part of his kingdom. He rules over us He defends us and he restrains and conquers all of his and our enemies praise god That's what it means for christ's became he conquers restrains all of his and all of our enemies the king He says he's he's been installed and this is the idea here Of the exaltation of christ so christ goes to the cross he suffers in place of his people So that when I said that there won't be a single sin in the history of the universe that won't be punished by god Don't hear me say that you're going to have to suffer that punishment You see if you're in christ that punishment will never touch you Because it touched christ because christ suffered the full weight of god's wrath on the cross So if you're in christ, we can we can rejoice today. We can sing out glory. Hallelujah Why because the wrath of god will never come against us We are spared the condemnation of god the wrath of god the judgment of god that's done christ took that But if you are outside of christ that means if you die in your sin Then you yourself will have to suffer and experience the full weight of god's wrath for all of eternity So that's what I meant when I said that there won't be a single sin in the history of the world that won't be punished But what we also have here is christ being king the exaltation of christ whenever christ Is installed on his throne? Okay, whenever he's raised from the dead and he ascends to be at the right hand of the father And now he has the name above every name Okay, this idea here is seven through nine. Let's look at this seven through nine And this when we have this speaker change here The sun is now speaking Jesus christ himself. This is this is called a messianic song. This is why this is a messianic song Seven through nine new to the words of christ. So if you have a red letter bible is that in red And if not what's up with that? It's just christ I will declare that a kree The lord has said to me you are my son today. I begot you Ask of me and I will give you the nations for your inheritance and the ends of the earth for your possession You shall break them with the rot of iron. You shall dash them to pieces like a potter's vessel See that's what the father told the son and now the son is telling us this is what the father told me This is what the father has given me Ask of me and I will give you the nations for your inheritance. Do we see this anywhere in the bible? The idea of christ ruling over all the nations the cry that christ has all authority and heaven and on Where have I seen that? You know, it's like oh, yeah, sometimes we you know don't ever think it's so I don't know Monstress might be too much of a term, but it's something like that whenever we start to think that christ is not on his throne We're still waiting for him to come into his cage of that's outrageous. That's ludicrous. That's monstrous That's absurd that there's right. So here we have the christ who is exalted. He's been installed on his throne He's talking about how he's the anointed one. This is what the father has decreed about the son from eternity past This uh, these are the nations now remember go back to verse one regarding nations. What do we have in verse one? Why do the nations rage? What do we have now in verse eight the nations are now christ You see this now the nations belong to him now christ has authority over all the nations So now there's a dilemma here. Here's the nations and they're waging war against christ and guess who now is lord over the nations That same christ Now you got a problem now you're in a dilemma if you're on the wrong side if you're not on the side of christ you're you're You you have a a significant issue problem you Look at verse nine You shall break them with the rod of iron You shall dash them to pieces like a potter's vessel and I know that's a lot of Drum rattling That the word You you look at this and you're like, okay. Okay. There's what what are we doing here? What's going on here? And and this reminds us now look when you're at christian is there are you engaged in a War or not Are you engaged in the wars of christian? What do you say? Of course you are right. We know we are man with the world with the flesh with the devil That's how historically, you know people usually we are in a battle. We are in a war. There is a war going on There's a battle going on the pilgrims progress is a glorious book. I think it indicates show some of that Oh, you know, there's all kinds of stuff. There's analogies out there, right? We the spiritual warfare That's what we're all in to some degree or not or another. We are all undergoing warfare spiritual warfare And and what you have here is you have when the gospel goes out and the gospel too begins to what ship do nations and subdue cultures And subdue homes and subdue people and always starts with people and always starts with regeneration Okay, because from regeneration flows out the subdual of everything else because as people, you know The nations nations is just an aggregate An accumulation of human beings in a certain area. That's what that's what nations are. It's a bunch of humans So when we start talking about this ruling of christ, how does that happen? Well, it begins with regeneration as the gospel goes out. God is subduing people through the work of the holy spirit Ultimately though what we have this is like second Corinthians 10 where we have this Paul says this For the weapons of our warfare he acknowledges we have warfare going on and we have weapons The weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty and god for pulling down stronghold. There are strongholds Casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of god You see how this goes exactly with what we were reading that first answer Does it not look casting down arguments every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of god Isn't that what the the kings the people in that what they're doing here That's exactly what they're doing. They're trying to lift themselves to a place of authority where they can now supplant who god is And policy and now listen the the weapons of our warfare are not carnal But they are mighty and god for pulling down strongholds. He's saying this they're better than carnal weapons You say that Pull out that sword The double-edged sword of the spirit. That's not say There's not a place for the other stuff too But the point is is this right the point is is when you're talking about what god is doing In a place or in a nation You know, I mean we see it in our country. You see it man. Can you not feel it? You can feel the wickedness The evil it's encroaching. It's got tentacles and it spreads out and it latches on and you can almost feel it It's dark and it is oppressive and you're like man. This is this is weird Is it right? I mean and so it's the same thing though with the holy spirit It's the same thing in that in that way as well The holy spirit goes forth and it's unleashed with power and with strength and with anointing and all of a sudden now What happens the darkness is driven back the darkness is pushed back. How does that happen? Well, it's because the power of god is working through us the holy spirit in us to push back the darkness So when you're looking at christ and he's saying listen look You shall break them with the rod of art. You shall dash them to pieces like a potter's vessel There are different implications here. Some people might look at this as the final judgment to come You might look at this as saying okay, there's something else as well as the gospel goes forth There's an outworking of the power of god working in cultures and in nations and in people and in homes and things are changing And we're seeing that today. I would argue but here's here's now you're like wait. What are you saying? We're seeing that today Yeah, we're seeing that today in this church Is there not change going on in your homes and in your persons every single day by the work of god going working in you That's always the trick here. That's always the catch. You know, it's always like where you got two sides either It's all external and it's all cultural and it's all political and it's all social Or it's all individual and it's all just you know, you're walking with jesus and everything else is both and You see We are seeing change in our own homes in our own lives in our own persons And through that eventually in our own neighborhoods and in our own workplaces in our own cities and through our own states That kind of thing right do we not? Okay now look Last stanza now therefore be wise of kings it's like Listen, and then he's I like the second verse two in verse 10. He says be instructed you judges on your be wise And be instructed the worst thing you can do is to look and read through a song like this and walk away Unchanged walk away without serious Reflection on what this is saying You know, it's like, okay, I read through here and you're saying well, you know what this is? This is god's invitation This is his gracious call. This is your chance to turn back. That's what repentance is It means to turn it means to change it means a change of mind Yes, but it influences the way you walk and the point here is this This is a gracious call of god to turn to the sun To turn to Jesus Christ to submit to the sun. That's why in verse 10 He says now therefore anytime you hear the word now or therefore, right? It's like, okay now now all of everything They just came before that here's the summary. Here's the conclusion This is because you read through one through nine and you could say well, okay. Well, I might read through this. Well now what? Well now therefore now therefore be wise Okay. Well, what do you mean be well? How how am I supposed to be wise? Now therefore be instructed. Okay. We'll be instructed by what what should I do about this? Here's the remedy serve the lord with fear. That's the first thing serve the lord with fear Serve the lord. You could say it this way Serve the lord rejoice with trembling Kiss the sun think of those three things right there serve the lord with fear rejoice with trembling Kiss the sun Those three things. What am I supposed to do? What do I do? I'm I'm reading through this. I'm like, okay. Look man I've been in full. I've been in idiot. Yes. I've been I've been trying to bring down god I've been on this wicked in you know, I've been I've yes, I've I've had wicked ideologies. I've had wicked thing Yes, what do I do about it serve the lord with fear rejoice with trembling kiss the sun The first phrase let's go through this one by what serve the lord with fear. This is something like reverence is it not? Is it not disgusting you see these churches out there man and there's no reverence This is this is This is the exact opposite, you know serve the lord with reverence. This is the idea Choose you this day and and change the loyalty show reverence do reverence and then rejoice with trembling Rejoice with trembling celebrate his rule over your life Do you let me ask it this way do you celebrate the fact? That you're not god Okay, now I know that we can say well, yeah, I mean I'm thankfully but no really right Celebrate the fact that god has placed constraints on you restrictions on you Do we celebrate that and that's a little harder, you know when you start your flesh starts to get a little anxious or antsy and you're like, okay, man I want to You you say no, you know, god is god is god is god in the flesh the flesh is trying to do his thing I'm trying to do my thing to the flesh and you're saying no god is the one who's in charge here The idea here is this rejoice celebrate the fact that god rules over our lives Celebrate that rejoice in that, you know, this is the whole idea is before you come to Christ You'll probably heard this other people say it, but you know you it is true that before you come to Christ. This is why john says God's commandments are not a burdensome thing Are they a burdensome thing? honoring your parents Our unregenerate kids are like heck. Yeah, man That's because they're unregenerate Right Okay Is it is it? I mean god's commandments god's law. Why does Christ say if you love me you'll keep my commandments And they're like dude. I'm not keeping your commandments. You're all about love not not no the idea there is is a delight It it's consistent with my new nature to do what god's will is You see that So rejoice with trimmly celebrate the rule of god over our lives kiss the sun the conquered king This is the idea of the conquered king falling before the victorious king and doing homage to that king who is just subdued me and conquered me In kissing his feet as a recognition that I am no longer In authority here all of my authority all of my my will all of my volition you could say my life Is not in my hands anymore everything is now his and you've been the need to him you kiss the sun That's the idea of coming under christ authority. It's again. It's it's the idea of turning from doing your own thing From going your own way turning back to christ turning back to the sun Otherwise what well it says it tells us kiss the sun lest he be angry You know we're like well jesus isn't jesus is sure nicer than the god of the old testament Well, here's jesus in the bible. We're seeing in the old testament. It says kiss the sun lest he be angry Lest the sun be angry and you perish in the way kiss the sun lest he be angry And you perish in the way when his wrath is kindled but a little christ wrath you're like christian He wouldn't get he's wrath it's right there. All right. Just read it man. This same god Same jesus old testament new testament same second person in the trinity when his wrath is kindled but a little This is why it's it's a this is about urgency This is about doing this at once. This is about not waiting and this is the whole thing You can be on the right side politically You can you can be on the right side of whatever issue cultural issue is out there But how many people unfortunately who are on the right side politically put in pun intended Okay, who are on the who are on the correct side or right side when it comes to cultural issues They die and guess what happens if they're not in christ they're in hell just like the the liberal that they hate it You see that don't be deceived in thinking that if you have the right politics Then somehow that merits your place or status in the eyes of god. It does not That's why this is so dangerous and very very difficult And this is also when you look at what's going on here you see lastly the refuge look at verse 12 at the very end When his wrath is kindled but a little blessed are all those who put their trust in him who take refuge in him I think your translation might say refuge who take refuge in him the early church talked about how christ The the wood of the cross now not literally But what christ does on the cross is something like the ark in the days of Noah and people When you wanted to escape the judgment to come the wrath of god the judgment of god on the earth There was only one place to go. There was only one refuge to be found and it was the ark And whoever found their place on that ark they were spared. They were saved the same thing now in christ If you want to be spared if you want to be saved if you want to be delivered Then you head as fast as you can into the ark of christ That is your only refuge same thing in the days of moses when they're at egypt and god's wrath is about to fall on egypt and destroy every Firstborn son the only way you could be spared that is if you were covered by the blood of the lamb And that's the same thing today That's the only chance you have It's not your politics. It's not what side you're on when it comes to cultural issues It's are you covered by the blood of the lamb and if you're not you are an enemy of the most high god It's the only way to look at it Because any other position than being covered by the blood of the lamb means that you have not submitted to the true god to the true key Regardless of what your politics are You see so there is a right side when it comes to cultural issues. There's a right side when it comes to politics and there's a wrong side But that's not what gets you into heaven That's not what makes you right with god the blood of christ is what makes you right with god And so we all have You can say we all have hope You say we all have hope the liberals and please look man And i'm saying this to be too. Please do not lose your mind when things Hit the fan in the next seven months eight months. It's probably going to get worse Right, please and i'm if you see me doing this come and be like dude remember that time Do not run to twitter or facebook and start venting and i haven't seen anybody doing that i'm just saying like ryan do not do that Be level headed All right and turn to god remember the first that you know when this happened four years ago And I was ticked off man. I was ready to go and do some Nothing crazy, but you know like we got to do something about this And I remember I called my dad who's also, you know, he's a very conservative man and I called him up and I was venting and like yeah, we got it and I was upset because he wasn't as mad as I was I was like man. What's wrong with this guy? You know and he's like ryan listen. I'm 70 years old I've been around i've seen a lot He goes shut up I just chill this stop like stay in your lane do what god has called you to do Okay, god has not called you to go on facebook or social media or whatever And start venting and raging and everything else whatever god has given you to do do it faithfully and that includes our civil obligations for sure, right? But do it faithfully To the glory of god knowing what christ is on his throne. He's not asleep christ is saying what's going on You take our complaints and our rages and our and our venting take those things to god Or at the very least if you got to call somebody if you got to talk to somebody Call somebody who's godly and mature and who's been around a while so they can tell you dude you need to chill out Because we need that sometime i'll call will Or another one of our patriarchs But that's what we need we need godly counsel godly wisdom, but we need a refreshing a refresher that hey guess who's on the throne Christ is on the throne. He's got it. He's going to take control now. Let's do let's let's do what god has called us to do And everything's going to happen as an easy. All right, let's pray Father, we praise you for this This song we praise you that you have not left us in the dark regarding your your kingdom regarding your rule your reign Well, what a blessing it is to know that we have a god who who is sovereign. He is lord you rule This nation you're over this nation. You're the god who causes kings and rulers to rise up you're a god who supplants and removes rulers we know that that that There's no maverick molecule in the universe. We know that When we do have wicked rulers as we do now we know that As calvin says, this is your judgment on wicked nations and so lord we confess that we are a wicked nation we confess that we are Far from the goal in in our own lives our own personal lives even as your people And so lord we confess and acknowledge that that your judgment upon this land is is righteous and is fitting And yet lord we we thank you that we can also ask for your mercy We can also ask for your restraint we can ask for your holy spirit to be poured out upon this land in a mighty way In a way that we don't deserve but in a way that is it is fitting for a god who is gracious A god who is merciful So lord we do ask that you would pour out your spirit upon us That you would give us The mind of christ regarding whatever is coming down the pike In this country lord help us to be uh, silver-minded Help us to be people that are uh people of the book people of the word in times of uh, whatever crisis or whatever to molt that we may That we may see We do ask that you would give us your supernatural age strengthen us in a supernatural way that we uh our wiser Wise beyond our years wise beyond our natural abilities lord give us that grace emotionally mentally Spiritually and all of it lord we ask this in christ name amen [Music]
