The Village Church
"King of the Hill: One Man does Have all that Power!" Indescribable - Audio
Before you are in the presence of our God, the true Holy Living God, the one that is awesome, that is indescribable, that is great, that no other God can compare to. I am humbled by this opportunity and my prayer has been throughout this week that God will completely decrease me and that you guys see all of him, that he is the only person that you see as I read and preach his word and proclaim it before you today. I am grateful for Alex giving me this opportunity, for my Alabama family, for coming, Marcellin, for need, Genica and Tommy. They know how to fight, so if you guys want to talk about me and my sermon, you might want to wait until you get to the parking lot before you start talking about me too loud. As always though, I want to keep a balance in my sermon. As I preach God's word, my Old Testament seminary teacher said, it's hard to talk about God without committing some type of heresy because he is just incredible, we can't find the words to describe him, so as I try to preach his word and describe him, just know that I am only in the tip of the iceberg that God is much bigger, God is much greater than I can imagine and can tell you all. So with that being said, I will try to display that God is love, that God is gracious, that God is merciful, but at the same time, you must understand that the same way he is perfectly loving and perfectly gracious and perfectly merciful, that he at the same time, he is a just God and he is a jealous God and that one day he will pour his wrath out on everyone that has not founded his Son. So with that being said, I'm about finished, let's go to prayer. Lord, we thank you so much for this opportunity. I pray that our completely decrease and you increase. I pray that you will open our hearts, our ears and our mind to receive your word. I pray, Lord, that you will send your angels to give us clarification of your word, to give us understanding of your word. Father, I pray that you will touch our hearts and souls, that you will either lead us to repentance, Lord, or lead us to Christ, Lord, and we may live for him. Give us a heart that says that, Lord, for God I will live and for God I will die. Amen. All right, in middle school, this is really weird, in middle school, I used to play this game. I do not recall playing the element, we used to play this game called King of the Hill and for some of you may know it, some of you may not. Alex was excited when he started giving me stuff to tell you all about it. I say, Alex, this is my sermon. I'm not listening. Anything you have to say, is this recorded right now? But anyway, the game in middle school, they always had a power of something, whether it was rocks, dirt, sand, it was always a power of something. And what we would do is we would run to the top of that power and we would pretty much as well, I'm King of the World, I'm King of the whatever, usually the King of that hill. And the game was everyone that wanted to play had to try to run up that hill and push you off the hill. That was it. It was just a bunch of, a bunch of boys that didn't mind getting a broken bone, bloody nose. That was it. There was no rules to the game. There was no, if you can stand up there for 20 seconds, you win. It was nothing. You had to keep fighting until either you lose or to the recess bell room. And so the game was constant, somebody pushing somebody else off, get to the top of the hill and try to fight everybody else off. And there was, like I said, there was no rules and there was no winner. That was just the game we played as a kid. And as I was thinking about that game, I would like to say that we only play that game as a child. That's what I would like to say. But the sad truth is all of us, most of us definitely, but I'm pretty sure all of us are still playing that game. That game where we're constantly trying to be on top or we're constantly trying to be the best at something. And we see this all the time, whether it's I'm out of favorite child or, and do you like me more than anybody else? Do I make more money than somebody else? Do I make more money? Am I the boss? And we constantly see this. Am I the greatest athlete, especially in this time of Olympics, that there's no clear winner, that yes, they get gold, but as soon as they touch that wall or as soon as they get that gold medal, the competition starts right back over. And they have to fight to retain that reign as king or as the best all over again. And so that's the game we're constantly playing. And so when we read Psalm 2, we have to read ourself into that psalm. That's the reason I told the story that when you look at Psalm 2, we can't be quick to judge the nations, the peoples, the kings that takes counsel against God. We can't be quick to judge them because we too are still playing that game. We're constantly trying to be on top. And I believe that we're constantly trying to get on top because we constantly forget that God already holds that position. So as we look at Psalm 2, I'm gonna break it down to four sections that pretty much everybody has ever dissected Psalm broken into. On the first portion is the first three verses. We see every various people. Verses four through six, we see a confident God that is sovereign. Verses seven through nine, we see God's decree, we hear of God's decree. And verses 10 to 12, we see the north to one's rule on earth. Now, as we should do any text in the Bible, we got to read it into its own context and to where it's at this moment. This will be considered a royal psalm, a coordination psalm, one that will be read or spoken of as a king was being crowned king of a David's throne. It is to reflect the David did covenant that we've seen second Samuel chapter seven. And so as we read certain things, we were reminded of second Samuel chapter seven, the covenant God made with David. But if nothing else, this Psalm, when it's read by the people, it gives them hope that there will be a time that their enemies are crushed, their enemies are smashed, and there will be a time that they have peace and that God's king reigns over the world. So as I thought I brought it down, I won't be long as we look through this passage. But we have to take consideration that this passage will ultimately point us to Christ. We're going to look at it as context. We would like to look at it as ourselves as we see that this passage ultimately points to Christ. So the first three verses, all the questions, why do the nations raise? And that why is implied for the first two verses completely? Why do the nations rage? Why do the peoples plot in vain? Why do the kings or the earth set themselves? Why do the rulers take counsel? Now, as reading this, the Psalmist does not seem surprised nor worried about such foolish behaviors, but he displays confidence that the rebellion will not succeed because immediately in the first verse, he says their plot is in vain. And so he quickly questions, why are they doing this? If it's not going to work, why even bother to do such foolish acts? They were built against the Lord and his anointed. Now, his anointed, remember, at this moment, we're not talking about Christ. Any king that's on the David throne would have to be first anointed king. And so that's who he's rebelling against. He's rebelling against the Lord and his anointed. But verse three uses the word there. It says, "Let us burst their bonds, cast away their cords." It reveals that there is a connection between the king and the Lord, that if you oppose one, then you oppose the other. And the question is, you ask the anointed, you ask God some anointed, you ask God's chosen people. If someone is against God or they against you, then your life shall reflect that if someone is against God, if they oppose God, if they offend God, does it offend you? And we see that here, the king is in God's will. And when they oppose God, they oppose him. And when they oppose him, they oppose God. Shaolin, a Christian writer, a Christian, he looked at this particular passage. And to paraphrase what he said, he compared this attempt as a kid with a water gun trying to take over the entire country of Spain. That's what he compared it to. Why are they even bothering to do such acts? How does God respond to this? God laughs. He laughs. Martin Luther once said, "If you can't laugh in heaven, then I don't want to be there." And I completely agree and I understand where he's coming from. But this is not the time to laugh. God's throne, his authority, his king, his power has just been challenged. And God loves. Luther later on says that if he was in a similar situation, that if he did everything that God did and the people who were built against him, he said, "I will God. I will kick this world into pieces." And after reading, I said, "Well, thank God, Luther isn't God." And we can also say the same thing about ourselves. Thank God, we're not God. Because we are impatient. We are easily angry. We love to throw the punch back after someone hits us. But that's not how God displays himself here. God displays himself as a patient God. It gives him opportunity to repent. But we are not their way. We can't be God. We can't drive up the street without getting ready to cuss people out and they cut me off and all this stuff. So how can we be God? And so we see here, we see that God authority is challenged, but he laughs. He holds them in the region. He mocks their puny attacks or their puny plans. Now God is not laughing at sin. He is not laughing. "Oh, look how cute they are while they're messing up in their sin against me." That's not what he is doing. Sin is not funny to God. We must understand that when we read this passage. He laughs because he knows the outcome of their schemes. And that's good to know that we serve a God that is mighty. If we serve a God that is awesome, that is confident, that is incredible, to the point that when challenged by opposition, his words alone terrifies them. That his words alone give life and his words alone can destroy a whisper can calm a storm. He speaks and things happen. That when he says let there be light, there doesn't matter how much darkness in the area, light has to come forth because God's word is powerful. He handles the rebellion of the nation by simply declaring, "I have sent my king, O Zion." The very thing the enemy tries to stop, God is already finished. And we can see that in our own life that when God proclaims something for you, when he says you will live, when he says that you will be successful, when he says you will make it through this, the enemy can do whatever he wants to. He can throw whatever he wants or he can put whatever he wants to in front of you, but if God has already said it, it's already happened. Don McClellan once said, "You think by now they would have figured it out. The Lord will always see you through." God says, "My king." I have said, "My king on my hill, it belongs to God. We belong to God." But for some reason, we constantly think that we have a say so and how it should be handled because we think it does not belong to God. We think it belongs to us, but God has shown that he is sovereign and he controls it all. Oh, as we look at the seven through nine verses, it reflects second seven, chapter seven. He will be my son and I will be his father is what David, what God told David and he's made his covenant with his people. We see privileges as we continue to read this from being the king and being God's son. And this privilege, this power that we see when it says that asking me, and I will make the nations your heritage and the ends of your earth your possessions. You shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a pirate's vessel. This is not a reflection of the king's power. This king is nothing but a man and he will eventually die. This is a reflection of God's power. This is a reflection that because God is controlled because God is anointing him. He is able to do these things. So as we look at it, we look at the reflection of God's power and we see how God gives his power and he empowers the king and whoever this anointing one is compared to God, the power God gives him all other opposition. It's feeble and frail. When we look at it, it says that they will be crushed like jars of clay, that whoever the anointed is, he can be confident in what God has told him and what God has anointing him will. Spurgeon looked at this passage and he said simply, "God's anointed is appointed and shall not be disappointed." This king can rest assured that compared to his empowerment by God, all of the opposition is fragile. But what does this say about God? What do we see as we look at this passage and we've seen the different actions that are going on? What does it say about God? Well, first God remains patient this time of rebellion. He is patient. He has not kicked the world of the pieces like he could have. He has given him the opportunity to repent. What else does it say? It shows that God's gracious. Not only does he give them time to repent, but he warns them of what will happen if they do not repent. His patience shows that he is in control throughout this whole song. He calls the kings to repent for their wicked plans. Serve the lower fears what he says. Fearing God is not an act of emotions, but one of wisdom. If they are wise, they will admit their foolishness and respond to the Lord in the way he commands. Kiss the son. Instead of trying to elevate to a spot that is already occupied by God, they are advised to wisely humble themselves. They cannot submit to God, though, without cement to his king or his son, and vice versa. They cannot submit to the son without cement to God. So what does it say for us? What does it look like for us today? Well, the same goes for us that in the New Testament, we understand it is revealed to us that Christ is the fulfillment of that great king on David's throne, that he is the fulfillment of Old Testament, and even this song, second song, he is the fulfillment of it, that he fulfilled it because he was the anointed one that later translates in the New Testament as Messiah, that he is God's son, that he is that king, that was him, that holy heal, that he is the fulfillment of this. All this happened when he went to the cross, that they almost got it right. They gave him a crown, but it wasn't supposed to be the crown of thorns, that they did close him, but it wasn't supposed to be a clothing for mockery, that they did elevate him to a higher position, but it was not supposed to be on the cross. They almost got it right, but because he faced the cross, and because he died, and because he raised from the day we're all powered, he rose up and he declared in Matthew 28 that all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. He destroyed his enemies when he died on the cross and resurrected from the grave, and we just like the nations and the peoples here are called to submit to him. The one true king, because of our rebellion, because of our sin, we are called to repent, lest you perish in a way. You are called to serve the Lord and repent. John Piper asked the question in his sermon, the greatest thing in the world. He asked the question what is sin, because we don't understand our rebellion, we don't understand our sin, we don't see a need to repent, unless we understand what sin is. We won't see a need to kiss the son and to ask God to forgive us if we don't understand what sin is. Sin is the glory of God not honored, the holiness of God not reverence, the greatness of God not admired, the power of God not praised, the truth of God not sought, the wisdom of God not esteemed, the beauty of God not treasured, the goodness of God not savored, the faithfulness of God not trusted, the promises of God not relied upon, the commandments of God not obeyed, the justice of God not respected, the wrath of God not feared, the grace of God not cherished, the presence of God not prized, and the person of God not loved. Anytime we want to be independent from the Father, that is sin and we are called to repent. So, the question is, do you see a need to repent then? Shover Rocket, he said that we oftentimes exaggerate our strengths and we hide our weaknesses. He said, but that only makes God's grace cheap. And so with that being said, I will close with a quote, I quoted Martin Luther, I didn't want to get in trouble, so I'm going to end with John Calvin. It says, "For there is no one so great or mighty that he can avoid the misery that will rise up against him when he resists and strives against God." Amen. [Applause]