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Sermon text: Psalm 2
Manuscript
When it comes to the top-10 list of histories all-time dumbest criminals, The internet is full would-be competitors criminals who’s plans are so dumb that the only proper response to them is to laugh...
ATM - Blow Torch For instance, In 2017, a thief in the state of Washington tried to break into an ATM, And he decided to do it with… a blow torch. Well, it technically worked, But he had just one slight problem. And the problem was that paper is quite flammable And so all he accomplished was starting a very expensive fire! No so smart...
Ebola-Tainted Meth In 2002, the Granite Shoals Police Department in Texas put out a fake Facebook story about Ebola-tainted meth, seeing if they could catch the county’s dumbest drug users. The post said: “If you have recently purchased meth or heroin in Central Texas, please take it to the local police or sheriff’s department so it can be screened with a special device.” DO NOT USE IT until it has been properly checked for possible Ebola contamination!” Upon reading this, one 29-year-old woman saw the post, and took her meth in… to the cops… to get it tested for safety… because she was, “afraid that her meth could be… dangerous”… No so smart...
Robbing a gun store with a knife In 2013, Derrick Mosley entered a store with knife, fully intending to rob it. But there was just one problem with his plan… The store he was trying to rob was… a GUN STORE, And to his great surprise, the store manager was armed with… a gun… and quickly drew it upon the criminal, where he then held him at gunpoint until the police arrived to arrest him. Evidently, Derrick Mosley never heard or understood the expression, “you shouldn’t bring a knife to a gun fight.” No so smart...
When we hear stories like this, they make us laugh because we realize how foolish and futile these criminal’s plans were. We wonder, “Why on earth would they ever think they could get away with it!” And even though we have certainly done foolish things ourselves, we tend to think we would never do something that foolish! We would never try to break into an ATM with a blow torch, We would never break the law and then accidently turn ourselves into the police, and we would never try to rob a gun store with a knife... Surely we would never do something so dumb… Would we?
Well, according to Psalm chapter 2, not only would we certainly attempt something so foolish, But we all already have. And what all of us have attempted as a human race is so foolish, that makes the criminals we just mentioned seem like rocket scientists by comparison. And the crime I am talking about is the crime of trying rob the all-power God of the universe of His throne and reigning in His place…. Which is a ridiculous plan that we cannot possibly pull off! And if we try to pull it off, we will not only fail, but we treasonous rebels will be crushed by the king’s might!
To avoid the king’s wrath, we must recognize:
- The treason in our hearts (v. 1-3)
- The futility of our plan (v. 4-9)
- The amnesty that is offered (v. 10-12)
1. The treason in our hearts (v. 1-3)
1 Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? 2 The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord and against his Anointed, saying, 3 “Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us.”
Psalm 2:1-3 ESV
_ Why do the nations rage? What is it that they desire? They rage because they desire freedom and independence from God, and so they have plotted to overthrow Him as king! The picture we are given of this is of an animal trying to break free from its bonds to run wild.
Ultimately, the nations refuse to bow the knee, because they desire to sit upon God’s throne and rule themselves.
In the Bible, God said: “You have shall have no other God before me!”
But in the human heart, we have said: “We shall have NO GOD before us!” In fact, our heart’s cry is: “We will be God!” Which is the heart-cry of the rebellion that goes back to the very beginning, when Lucifer desired the same thing. And it was under this banner that he recruited humanity into his war effort against God, as they disobeyed God and ate from the tree of knowledge of good & evil.
And what is the result of all of this “raging against the Lord”? The death of billions Because the wages of sin is death!
In Genesis chapter 1, it tells us that God made the entire universe, How? By the power of His voice He simply spoke it, and they it was.
And after it tells us this, It goes on to say: “He also made the stars.” Do you know how many stars there are? Not Billions… TRILLONS! And for this all-powerful God, it’s almost as an afterthought. “Oh yeah, BTW, I almost forgot - He lit the fires of a trillion burning suns with the power of His voice.”
That’s the God humanity has rebelled against… Which makes the criminals we mentioned earlier look like geniuses by comparison!
When it comes to this rebellious attitude against God, Do you know what it really is? It’s Satanism. See, a lot of people think Satanism is the worship of Satan. But it’s not. Satanism is self-worship, instead of God-worship.
The 19th century pastor George MacDonald, a man who heavily influenced C. S. Lewis, once said this about humanity’s rebellious heart… He said: “There is one conviction in hell, ‘I am my own.”
When it comes to God, there are 3 ways to rebel against Him. The atheistic way, The idolatrous way, And the religious way,
First, let’s talk abut the atheistic way.
When it comes to the atheistic way, Romans 1 makes it clear: The atheist doesn’t disbelieve in God because of a lack of evidence, No, they have all of the evidence they could ever need simply looking at the Creation - which shouts that there is a Creator! And yet, they still somehow cannot find God. And why? Because, as one theologian put it: “The atheist can’t find God the same way the criminal can’t find the police officer.” It’s not a lack of evidence, it’s a lack of desire!
Secondly, there’s the idolatrous way. Which is what we do when we make God in our own image.
See, most people aren’t atheists. Most have no problem believing in a god, but the idea of believing in the God of the Bible is absolutely off the table. And if you don’t believe me, there is a real easy way to test this: Post or Tweet, a nice picture of a sunset that says, “God is love,” and see all of the positive responses you get. Then post a picture of a lightening storm that quotes Hebrews 9:27.
Hebrews 9:27 (NASB95) 27 … it is appointed unto men once to die and then comes judgment, Or maybe
14 For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil.
Ecclesiastes 12:14 ESV
How many likes and positive comments do you think you’ll get with something like this? Probably not very many! and why not? It’s because our culture has no trouble believing in a God of love who cares about the things we care about, and accepts everything about us… but an all-powerful God who speaks in a thundering voice from Mount Sinai, who says, “THOU SHALT, no matter what you think or feel!”… restricts our behavior and is an absolute threat to our autonomy!
The Bible makes it clear: This attitude is the default position of every single human heart
9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?
Jeremiah 17:9 ESV
Look again at verse 1:
1 Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain?
Psalm 2:1 ESV
Do you see what this passage is saying? It’s not just the nation’s bad politicians. This is a GRASSROOTS rebellion that demands total liberation! Which is not only an impossibility, But it’s not a good idea even IF we could somehow pull it off!
To avoid the king’s wrath, we must recognize:
2. The futility of our plan (v. 4-9)
When it comes to our treasonous plans, We’ve got a serious problem, and the problem is this: The human heart both longs to overthrow the King, while simultaneously NEEDING the king.
With the nation of Israel, do you remember who their king was before King Saul? It was Yahweh God. And when they got tired of that, what did they do? Did they say, “WE DO NOT WANT A KING ANYMORE!” No, they wanted a king, They just didn’t want God as their king.
See, here’s the thing: If you refuse to serve God and have Him be seated upon the throne of your life - you can’t leave the throne empty! You have to crown someone or something as King and place them upon it! and this is because inside all of our hearts we all have a little throne inside of it, And that throne requires a king sitting upon it.
Which is a truth we find in all our greatest stories: From Narnia, to Robin Hood, to King Arthur, to the Lord of the Rings, to even The Lion King.. All of these stories are telling us exactly what our hearts are telling us: which is that we long for a king to set everything right! Which is quite odd when you consider just how bad human kings have been!
See, here’s the thing about that: If there isn’t a true King that our hearts long for, then it really doesn’t make much sense that we all have this longing… because when we look at the history of kings… it’s not just bad… it’s REALLY, REALLY, BAD!
The record of human kings is absolutely horrible Even King David, who wrote this Psalm, a man who was “a man after God’s own heart,” wasn’t fit to rule! He not only committed adultery with is his friend’s wife, but he then murdered him to try and cover it up!
The reality is: No human being is fit to rule because of the nature of the human heart - which is desperately wicked. In fact, The history of kings and monarchs is so bad, we’ve almost entirely replaced them with another form of government. But does this mean we have we finally cured ourselves of our need for a king? Not even close…
What kind of “kings” do we look to instead? How about celebrities, politicians, sports players, money, career, relationships… You name it - it can be a king that we are looking to to solve our problems and make us live happily ever after! But the fact is, none of these can sit upon the throne of our heart and lead us to happiness! Only the King of Glory can! Yet, despite our hearts knowing that these false kings are unable satisfy the longing of our hearts, our hearts rage on still in futility against the one true King.
And so how about you? Is there an area of your life, that you refuse to submit to the authority of the king? Because that’s what sin is. It’s saying: “I have to have THAT in order to be happy, and I’ll do anything, including sinning, to get it!” And yet, it never leads to true happiness and joy - because it can’t. It wasn’t made to sit upon the throne of your heart.
What is God’s response to our raging efforts to sit upon His throne? As our text tells us, it’s the same response we have to dumb criminals who plot in vain… He laughs at our futile plans because He is King and their silly plans cannot threaten His rule.
4 He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision. 5 Then he will speak to them in his wrath, and terrify them in his fury, saying,
Psalm 2:4-5 ESV
The imagery here is of a peaceful and calm Heaven, where God is sitting restfully on His throne, Completely undisturbed by all the noise and commotion going on on the earth. He isn’t at all worried for even a second about puny man’s plots to overthrow Him. And so what does He do in response? He laughs! You could say, He scoffs back at the Scoffers of Psalm 1! And He does so because He knows their end,
Psalm 2:5 (ESV) 5 Then he will speak to them in his wrath, and terrify them in his fury…
One day soon, the Lord will judge the nations with a voice that makes the loudest of thunder sound like a whisper, and when He does, He will: “break them with a rod of Iron, and dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel,” as verse 9 says.
And so here’s the question church Yes, the nations are raging, Yes, we see them plotting way! But why do we worry about it? Why do we sometimes act as if every single American election is going to make our break God’s plans? Why do we worry that the moral decay of our country will win? Why do we view the hardship in our life a challenge to God’s rule and reign? Because it’s not! In fact, it’s all apart of His plans! And NOTHING is going to stop it!
And so, as we are about to discover in our upcoming study through the book of Philippians, we Christians must and should persevere in the midst of the nation’s raging, Not with groaning, but with JOY! For our King sits upon the throne of Heaven, And He is soon going to invade this world where He will rule and reign! Which is exactly what verses 6-9 and speaking of!
6 “As for me, I have set my King on Zion, my holy hill.” 7 I will tell of the decree: The Lord said to me, “You are my Son; today I have begotten you. 8 Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession. 9 You shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.”
Psalm 2:6-9 ESV
As we know, these verses are speaking of Christ’s coming kingdom where He will rule and reign upon David’s throne. But think about this: What happened first to this king when He came 2,000 years ago? He was broken a rod of Iron and dashed into pieces Himself. And yet, did the nation’s raging and their successful plot to crucify the Son of God cause Heaven to worry? Not in the slightest! For with our sovereign God even the most heinous of the nation’s plots only worked to serve HIS ultimate plot, which was to install His only begotten Son upon Zion’s Hill where He will rule and reign with the people He redeemed!
But here’s the thing Christian… And I really want you to think about this: If the murder of the Son of God couldn’t ruin God’s plans, How on earth is anything else we might face going ruin it? it’s not… For as Romans 8 tell us, every hardship you face: suffering, hardship, danger, and sword, they are all working together for good for the people of God! for all those who have accepted the amnesty that the King has offered:
To avoid the king’s wrath, we must recognize:
3. The amnesty that is offered (v. 10-12)
When the ancient kings would go into battle, they would often break a clay pot with a Rod to symbolize the utter devastation they were going to bring upon their enemies, and this is the picture the Psalmist is painting for us for what will happen when Christ returns as King to reign over His enemies. for as this passage tells us, those who will not bend, will be broken… And… just as a Potters' vessel cannot be restored after it has been smashed into pieces, so too will the judgment of sinners be irreversible when the all-powerful Son of God lays waste to them. But thankfully, He has given a means of escaping this fate.
10 Now therefore, O kings, be wise; be warned, O rulers of the earth. 11 Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling. 12 Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are all who take refuge in him.
Psalm 2:10-12 ESV
Though the day is certainly coming when the King will return and judge His enemies with a Rod of Iron and smash them like clay pots, Today is not yet that day. Instead, on this day, the coming King invites us to be wise. To stop raging against Him and submit to His authority. To embrace His mercy and accept His amnesty, even though we have all taken part in the rebellion against Him!
How do we accept the amnesty He offers? As verse 12 says: By kissing the Son in submission, and taking refuge in Him.
What does it mean to kiss the Son and to take refuge in Him? It isn’t the insincere kiss of Judas in the garden, but the sincere kiss of submission and reconciliation to the King of King and Lord of Lords. This is what verse 12 means when it says “to take refuge in Him.” The picture is of king who is about to attack a fortified city with his massive army, but before the attack, he offers peace to all those who would surrender to him and take refuge in him. And to take refuge, or to to kiss the Son, is to do what Acts 16:31 commands, which is to, “BELIEVE ON THE LORD JESUS CHRIST AND THOU SHALT BE SAVED!” It’s the idea of turning from your sin and trusting in Him as your Lord and Savior,
We said earlier that there were 3 ways to rebel against God, And maybe you didn’t notice, but we left the 3rd one out. Well, here’s the 3rd one The religious way
The religious way recognizes that God is the sovereign King of the universe, And it even recognizes that it’s our duty to serve Him, But, instead of taking refuge in Him by sheer grace, We take refuge in our moral and religious activity. Which is really just another way of trying to rule over Him,
Here’s why this is the case: With the religious path, we aren’t serving God to get God, No - instead, we are serving God to get what God can give us… Good health, a good job, and good relationships. But this is just another way of trying to get God off His throne and put something else on it! Which is idolatry And so unless you come before Him by sheer grace, and accept His mercy by kissing the son, You’re still raging against Him with your very acts of service towards Him! Which is a terrifying thought!
So… How can we know if we have truly taken refuge in Him and aren’t simply serving Him to get what He offers instead of to get Him? By following 5 things:
If Jesus is our refuge we will:
Joyfully Serve Him
First, if Jesus is our King, we will obey Him. If Jesus is our King, he isn’t merely our consultant; it means HIS WILL BE DONE, not MY will be done. And there’s really no way around this, while obedience doesn’t save us, if Jesus has saved us, and consequently truly is our King, we must and will obey Him!
Second, if Jesus is our King, we trust Him. When we step down from the throne of our life and look to Jesus to rule instead, It means we trust Him even when He does things that we don’t understand. Practically, this means that when (not if) something really bad happens, we don’t say: “How could you do this God? I can’t trust and follow a God who would bring this kind of suffering into my life!” Instead, if Jesus is our King we trust Him no matter what He sovereignly brings into our lives - even if it’s suffering and loss. Instead of turning away from Him, we will say as Job said, “Though he slay me, yet will I trust in Him.”
Third, if Jesus is our King, we will properly approach Him. Verse 11 says: “Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling.” When we approach the King of universe, we do not approach Him like He is just anybody… we approach Him with a holy reverence, fear, and respect. As Hebrews 12 says, “let us be thankful and worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for our “God is a consuming fire.” This is not a dreadful fear, but a joyous fear that both loves and respects Him.
Fourth, if Jesus is our King, we will have kingly confidence in Him. If we rarely pray to Him, or don’t really expect Him to answer our prayers, then we aren’t treating Him as King. Think about it: If we really believed that Jesus is the all-powerful king of the universe, wouldn’t you think this might effect how much we pray, and what we pray for? Of course it would! And so if Jesus truly is our King, then we will and must pray to Him in faith with confidence - not with doubt or uncertainty.
Fifth, if Jesus is our King, we will serve Him. In Matthew 28:19-20, Jesus commands us, saying: “I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth. Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations.” When King Jesus saves rebels He then commissions them as ambassadors of His kingdom to go out and warn other people that His invasion force is coming, To invite them to bow the knee in allegiance to Him, so they too can be brought into His kingdom. And as saved rebels, we delight to sacrificially serve Him as we go into the highways and byways of life, Urging all the rebels we find to lay down their arms and instead find refuge in Him as our King.
And why wouldn’t we want Him as our King? For not only are we terrible at sitting upon the throne of our lives, But, remember, we are not submitting to a tyrannical King who seeks to imprison us in slavery and misery, but to a gracious and loving King who seeks to bless us! A King who showers us with ALL of His riches and loving kindness, Who also invites us to rule and rein with Him! Why wouldn’t we want to submit to a king like that? A shepherd king who is full of love for His people!
As one old hymn puts it: The King of love my shepherd is, whose goodness faileth never. I nothing lack if I am his, and he is mine forever.
And so how about you? Have you come to recognize the treason in your heart? Have you come to see the futility of your rebellious plan to live your life as you see fit, instead of as the King has commanded? And if so, have you accepted the amnesty He now offers by grace through faith in His One and only begotten Son?
Simply put Have you surrendered to King Jesus…? I trust and hope you have For blessed are all those who take refuge in Him!
Let us pray
This is the manuscript the sermon was preached from, so the recording may differ in places.