Untitled Sermon

Introduction

Open this evening to Psalm 2. We will read all 12 verses and then pick up from verse 2 where we left off last time. Psalm 2 this evening.

Last time, meditating on riotousness, the “peoples plot in vain.” The word vain is the same as the word meditate in Psalm 1. They fill up their minds with vain or pointless rage.

Then there are the rulers, who premeditate their rebellion.

As we have seen in Luke on Sunday with Pastor Gabe, over and over again, the leaders in Jesus' day had no excuse. The signs were there < Jesus brought people back from the dead and still they sought > much less all the other signs. It was willful, premeditated rebellion.

We, in our leadership roles, will either be for Christ or against Him:

Homes

Churches

Community

The broader the context, the greater the judgment. The more righteous the leader should be (Pastors), the greater the judgment for wickedness.

When considering the vanity of this kind of rebellion, the object of rejection is important. In this case, the Lord and His anointed.

Please stand as we read from Psalm 2.

Psalm 2 ESV

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.” 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, 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.” 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.

May God bless the reading of His holy, infallible, and sufficient Word.

Let’s pray.

Transition

We are given a name and two titles in verse 2: The LORD (YHWH), which is both a name and a title, and the Anointed (Mashiah in Hebrew or Christou, Christ, in Greek).

This leaves us with the need to ask the question: who is the LORD and his Anointed, and why is it vanity to rage against them?

Let’s read verse 1 and 2.

Body

The LORD and His Anointed

They take counsel together, engaging in premeditated rebellion against the LORD.

The Hebrew word YHWH is the name of God, known to God’s people throughout time. “To Seth also a son was born, and he called his name Enosh. At that time people began to call upon the name of the LORD.” (Genesis 4:26, ESV)

Respect for the name of the Lord without mysticism is key. Mysticism is the problem and always has been. Pen trashed, written without vowels, etc., is part of the vain repetition Jesus talked about that we covered in the Lord’s Prayer.

YHWH is the all-encompassing name of God in Hebrew, just as God is the all-encompassing name of God in English. By this word, we mean the Trinity (Godhead, KJV).

Who is the Lord? Reinforce knowing thy God.

Catechize this week:

Q. Are there more Gods than one?

A. There is but one only (Deut. 6:4), the living and true God (Jer. 10:10).” [1]

Hearing in your mind YHWH, the one living and true God, is a very good start.

Notice the arrogance of these people: they rage and counsel against the one true living God.

That’s why David’s question in verse one is so poignant and twofold:

Why do they rage? Don’t they know you are God and they cannot undo anything you have decreed

Lord, you are God; why do you allow this raging?

Knowing your God is all-powerful, He is not held back from the immediate slaughter of all His enemies other than by Himself for His own purposes.

“What if God, desiring to show His wrath and to make known His power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, in order to make known the riches of His glory for vessels of mercy, which He has prepared beforehand for glory.” (Romans 9:22–23, ESV)

He has decreed to do this through His anointed.

Here we must clearly understand what David the psalmist means by saying they rage against God and His Mashiah (in Hebrew) or Christou (in Greek).

There are those who say David is not thinking of himself here and only has a view to the Messiah.

I think that idea is untenable, especially in the context of the rest of the Psalms.

“Great salvation He brings to His king, and shows steadfast love to His anointed, to David and his offspring forever.” (Psalm 18:50, ESV).

Clearly, the anointed that is being raged against in the day this Psalm is written is David.

Think about it:

Saul

The Philistines

The Amalekites

The Moabites

All the 'ites' and their continuous raging against God's people.

However, the ultimate fulfillment is always Christ and they are still raging against Him.

In Christ, this verse is ultimately because it is Him who is BOTH the anointed and YHWH.

David can never be both the LORD and His Anointed, but Jesus is without losing the separation.

That’s the Hypostatic Union; this is what we mean by those words, Hypostatic Union:

"Truly Man and Truly God," one person, two natures, without any mixing, or as the creed puts it, "without confusion."

The 1689 says in chapter 8 “So that two whole, perfect, and distinct natures were inseparably joined together in one person, without conversion, composition, or confusion; which person is very God and very man, yet one Christ, the only mediator between God and man.” [2]

Calvin said, “World rages, in order to disturb and put an end to the prosperity of Christ’s kingdom, we have only to remember that, in all this, there is just a fulfillment of what was long ago predicted, and no changes that can happen will greatly disquiet us. Yea, rather it will be highly profitable to us to compare those things which the apostles experienced with what we witness at the present time. Of itself the kingdom of Christ would be peaceable, and from it true peace issues forth to the world; but through the wickedness and malice of men, never does it rise from obscurity into open view without disturbances being excited. Nor is it at all wonderful or unusual if the world begins to rage as soon as a throne is erected for Christ.” [3]

The current VP democratic candidate said in a speech recorded to X, that’s Twitter, “My record is so pro-choice that Nancy Pelosi asked me to tone it down, and I stand with Planned Parenthood.” [4]

They rage against God, His image in unborn children with murderous desire, against Christ, and His Lordship.

Transition

Christ's Lordship is chafing to them. The Lord's rule is to them bonds and chains they hate. Look at verse 3.

Rest to the Righteous and Chafing to the Wicked

Let’s be clear here, the “their” “burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords” is YHWH and His anointed one.

There is an atheist from a few years ago, Christopher Hitchens. I watched an interview he did just days before dying of cancer, where he said, “If anyone tells you I got saved on my deathbed, don’t believe them. If anyone says he repented or whatever on his deathbed, don’t believe it.”

The man was dying of cancer, and with his dying breaths, he was spewing hatred toward God. It's a sad thing to say that now he knows better, too late.

The reason I bring him up is that he wrote a book entitled “God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything.”

In this book, he pretends to have a discourse on the evils of religion, but if you were to distill the argument, it would be this: I don’t like a God that tells me what I can and cannot do in the bedroom.

The right and just rules of the Lord, the right and beautifully purposed sexuality established by the Lord, were bonds and chains chafing against his ungodly desires.

The pro-choice advocates and those who will not work for the abolition of abortion are guilty of the same chafing against God’s law.

The rulers that want to rule their way and take counsel against the Lord in this land and around the world today are guilty of the same chafing against God’s law. To them, God’s law is not a delight, but salt in an open wound, handcuffs biting at the wrists, chains in a dungeon.

Let’s not pretend that God’s law is not a yoke; it is a chain to bind and reveal wickedness. Jesus said, come and take my yoke. To the righteous, that chain and that yoke is a joy because it binds them to the Lord of their love.

To those who find delight in the law of God, it is such because He steps in and puts His shoulder into the yoke with them. They delight in the law because they know their hearts wander and long to be bound to Him.

They sing: “Let Thy goodness, like a fetter,

Bind my wandering heart to Thee.

Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,

Prone to leave the God I love,

Here's my heart, oh take and seal it,

Seal it for Thy courts above.”

Augustine helps us apply this to ourselves with what he said: “Let us do our endeavor, that the Christian religion do not bind us, nor be imposed upon us.” [5]

Christian, where is your desire when it comes to the law of God? Does it bind you to freedom in Christ, or does it chafe at your mind?

Do you cry “Bind my wandering heart to Thee” or do you seek to cast the fetters far from you?

This is a fearful meditation, friends. The Apostle Paul exhorted us, “Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test!” (2 Corinthians 13:5, ESV)

This is a test of the faith: does your heart chafe against God, or does it long for Him?

As Augustine said, does “Christian religion … [bind] us, nor be imposed upon…” you?

Conclusion

So, Believer, don’t be surprised or alarmed when the world rages against God.

Surprised

Alarmed

Do you find in your heart a desire to be bound to God? You will also find a resistance; that sin nature is not gone yet. you will fight this battle, but for you it is not a losing battle.

Many of you have known me long enough to know my favorite historical Christian phrase. It’s accredited to John Newton, the author of Amazing grace and it goes like this, I am not the man I want be, I am not the man I should be, but by the grace of God i am not the man I used to be. If you can say that,

Thank God, He knows you, He plants you, He tends you. You are His sheep, His workmanship, His people.

Benediction

Numbers 6:24–26 ESV

24 The Lord bless you and keep you; 25 the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; 26 the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.

References

[1] C. H. Spurgeon, A Catechism, With Proofs (Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, 2009), 4.

[2] R. C. Sproul, ed., The Reformation Study Bible: English Standard Version (2015 Edition) (Orlando, FL: Reformation Trust, 2015), 2482.

[3] John Calvin and James Anderson, Commentary on the Book of Psalms, vol. 1 (Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, 2010), 12.

[4] Farming and Jesus. "We can use farming principles to understand Jesus' teachings." X, August 7, 2024. https://x.com/farmingandjesus/status/1820940370311774622?s=46.

[5] Augustine of Hippo, “Expositions on the Book of Psalms,” in Saint Augustin: Expositions on the Book of Psalms, ed. Philip Schaff, trans. A. Cleveland Coxe, vol. 8, A Select Library of the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church, First Series (New York: Christian Literature Company, 1888), 2.

Bibliography

Calvin, John, and James Anderson. Commentary on the Book of Psalms. Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, 2010.

Farming and Jesus. "We can use farming principles to understand Jesus' teachings." X, August 7, 2024. https://x.com/farmingandjesus/status/1820940370311774622?s=46.

Schaff, Philip, ed. Saint Augustin: Expositions on the Book of Psalms. Vol. 8. A Select Library of the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church, First Series. New York: Christian Literature Company, 1888.

Sproul, R. C., ed. The Reformation Study Bible: English Standard Version (2015 Edition). Orlando, FL: Reformation Trust, 2015.

Spurgeon, C. H. A Catechism, With Proofs. Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, 2009.