The Lord Reigns
Notes
Transcript
Introduction and Background
Introduction and Background
Good morning Church! I am so glad to be able to come in front of you today and open up God’s Word with you.
If you do not know who I am or it is your first time here, my name is Braden, I am the Student Minister, which means they throw me down with the teens, we learn about the Lord, and try to all make it out alive.
Today we are going to be in Psalm 2 continuing in our series, a summer through the Psalms.
Last week Pastor Joel was in Psalm 1, which is one of my favorite Psalms, which is a good things because these two Psalms go hand and hand.
They are like peanut butter and jelly.
You can have them separate, but I like them a whole lot more together because they compliment each other.
So if you have your copy of God’s Word, join me in the reading of Psalm chapter 2 verses 1-12.
Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain?
The kings of the earth take their stand, and the rulers conspire together against the Lord and his Anointed One:
“Let’s tear off their chains and throw their ropes off of us.”
The one enthroned in heaven laughs; the Lord ridicules them.
Then he speaks to them in his anger and terrifies them in his wrath:
“I have installed my king on Zion, my holy mountain.”
I will declare the Lord’s decree. He said to me, “You are my Son; today I have become your Father.
Ask of me, and I will make the nations your inheritance and the ends of the earth your possession.
You will break them with an iron scepter; you will shatter them like pottery.”
So now, kings, be wise; receive instruction, you judges of the earth.
Serve the Lord with reverential awe and rejoice with trembling.
Pay homage to the Son or he will be angry and you will perish in your rebellion, for his anger may ignite at any moment. All who take refuge in him are happy.
Pray with me.
Psalm 2 is a an account of Histroy.
We see how things were back then, people raging.
We see how people are now, and they still in this state.
And it is how it is going to play out. Us as sinful people in our natural state, against God.
God and sin do not go together so we see that Psalm 2 reveals how history repeats itself.
Man kind finding itself wrapped in sin, standing in opposition to God.
But is also reveals a second meaning.
His - story
God’s story.
That Jesus is on the throne, the anointed Son has been installed.
So now we have a choice, to submit to the Lord, or continue in our state of rebellion and face judgement.
this leads me to my first point and it is that…
The Nations Rebel (vv. 1-3)
The Nations Rebel (vv. 1-3)
We find this in verses 1-3
Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain?
The kings of the earth take their stand, and the rulers conspire together against the Lord and his Anointed One:
“Let’s tear off their chains and throw their ropes off of us.”
This Psalm starts out with a question, why do the nations rage?
David is here looking at God and knowing how great he is.
Like last week how the one who is in him is blessed.
We see this theme throughout scripture about God and his redeeming nature.
So the writer of this psalm is amazed he is astonished that the people on Earth would rebel and conspire against the God of Heaven.
Think about your interactions with God, all of the things in your life that he has done for you.
If you are a blood bought born again believer that he has saved you. He has taken your sins.
Then looking a few weeks back at Romans 8 that he is working all things for the good of those who love Him and are called according to his purpose.
Like God has provided time and time again, so why would people stand in opposition of God?
Do people stand in opposition to God?
Do the conspire together?
The answer is yes, they have, and they will keep on doing it.
All of us rebel against God, because we are all sinners.
Our sin and God’s perfection do not go together.
When we sin we are going against God, disobeying him, rebelling against time.
We are not perfect which is why we need our perfect Savior.
So we rebel because we are sinful, but it is the same with the Kings, or the people of power on this Earth.
They conspire with one another, they plot in vain.
This word plot is the same Hebrew word for meditate in Psalm 1.
We were told to mediate one the Law of the Lord day and night. We have to grow in God’s Word, we have to know God’s Word.
This word means in its root to murmur or to mutter. So instead of emptying ourselves like most people think about in mediation, we are to fill ourselves and always have God’s word on our hearts. Muttering it to ourselves.
When we do not have God’s word to reflect on we plot against him.
We start to mutter or plot against him. We start to bring in other people, filling ourselves up with unholy things, rather than God’s Word.
We see the perfect example of people conspiring against the Lord in the book of Acts.
We see Herod and Pontius Pilate are going to plot together.
Look at Acts 4:27-28 with me.
“For, in fact, in this city both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, assembled together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed,
to do whatever your hand and your will had predestined to take place.
Herod and Pontius Pilate came together and plotted against God.
We see in Luke 23:12, that before their mutual hate for Jesus they were enemies with one another.
But where else do we see this in history?
The Romans… leading to Nero, capturing Christians, killing them. Lighting their bodies on fire to light up the night.
Hilter… rebeling against the Jews who were originally God’s covenant people.
China… Christianity being illegal there.
We have to know that the Nations are rebelling, they were back then, and they are now.
And when the nations are rebelling, they are trying to tear themselves away from God.
We have to know that - Rebels reject God’s rule, but that is false freedom.
The Kings in this passage sound too familiar.
You get to talking to people about faith and you start to hear how the people in this world think.
How Christianity is just a rule book to steal all my fun.
And I have had those conversations with people who won’t follow Christ because…
they would have to stop getting drunk.
They couldn’t go to those parties.
They would have to stop having sex with their girlfriend.
They would have to stop smoking week.
They would have to stop watching pornography.
These people say all God does is give us a rule book, just like the people in this passage they said throws those ropes and chains off of us.
We do not want to be tied down by the things the Bible says is sinful.
But that is false freedom.
because true freedom is only found in Christ and Christ alone.
God doesn’t give us these guidelines to steal our joy, but he gives them to us to protect us.
So back to the writers point, God has never done anything to harm you.
Why would you rage, why would you want the ropes thrown off, why do you want to be completely separated from God?
And it is rooted in pride.
When we put ourselves at the center of the universe and think things revolve around us, we do not want rules.
But when we put God at the center and we know that he has a plan for us, we do not want to be seperated from him.
We want him to come close, so we embrace the boundries that he sets in place for us.
but no matter what… people are going to rebel.
When rebellion surrounds, where do we stand?
if you are taking notes, write that one down quickly because the slide will change soon.
There is a popular experiment done in the 1950’s called the Asch Conformity line test.
They put 8 random people in a room and gave them two pictures. On the one picture was a line and the other was three options of lines of different links and it said which line matches the one in the first picture.
“Which of these 3 lines matches the target line”
Less than 1% of people got the answer wrong. They did it over and over again and basically no one got it wrong.
Then they flipped the experiment, they put 8 people in a room and 7 of them knew what was going on and were told to say the wrong answer, then the one person who was not in the know was to answer the question. This caused 75% of people to get the answer wrong.
When asked afterwards they said they knew the answer was wrong, they just picked it because everyone else did.
When the nations rebel, we cannot rebel just because everyone else is.
We have to put our faith in God because we know that he is faithful, and he is not passive.
We find hope knowing that…
God Replies (vv. 4-6)
God Replies (vv. 4-6)
The one enthroned in heaven laughs; the Lord ridicules them.
Then he speaks to them in his anger and terrifies them in his wrath:
“I have installed my king on Zion, my holy mountain.”
When we look at all that is going on in the world isn’t in comforting to know that God is not sitting back doing nothing?
He doesn’t have his feet propped up eating Holy potato chips watching the world unpack like his favorite TV show.
He is interactive with us.
He is interactive with this world.
Even when the people are in rebellion, he cares and is there.
Lets take a flashback to the nations in rebellion.
Specifically the church in China.
They have super specific rules on religion in China.
They have laws and regulations making it where Christianity exists in underground churches.
They are hiding what they are doing.
The government does not support God, they are in rebellion to God.
Arresting people and persecuting people for what they believe.
Then they go in on May 1st of this year and instate and re-enforce religious regulations.
Some of these regulations are:
Establishing religious organizations, setting up religious offices, religious activity sites, or religious schools.
Unauthorized preaching or conducting collective religious activities.
Recruiting religious followers among Chinese citizens or appointing religious personnel.
Producing or selling religious books.
This is a nation rebelling…
It is illegal to go and plant a church.
To preach the Gospel without permission.
To evangelize.
To make or sell a Bible.
China is revolting against God.
but what does he do?
God laughs at those who think they can get in the way of his plan.
He laughs because the Chinese church has sky rocketed.
They have experienced so much growth.
They are growing faster than the church in America.
They are being persecuted.
And not even a rebelling nation can stop God’s plan.
He doesn’t laugh because it is humorous, but because it is outlandish.
That mankind can interfere with God’s will.
It cannot.
The God that spoke this world into existence.
That split the water so Israel could escape slavery.
That made Shadrack, Meshack, and Abedigo survive the firey furnace.
That closed the mouth of the lions, so Daniel wouldn’t die.
And on top of that, sent his Son to live a perfect life, to die on the cross, be raised from the dead, so we can have promises like in Romans 8 that he is working all things out for the good of those who love him.
So he is in complete and utter shock that a King over a small portion of this floating rock that he created would try to out power him.
Because God is on the throne.
He has authority over everything.
He is not worried about the outcome. God knows the outcome.
He is in heaven, sitting on the only throne that matters.
The Kings only think that they have power.
The President, the Kings, the people in charge think they they have power, but they are really over nothing.
They are “over” this world, but this world is an evil fallen world.
but they have no authority for what goes on in this world.
Because God has the whole world in his hands.
The ones who think they can live life in opposition to God do not stand a chance.
Kings come and go, presidents come and go.
but God has never left the throne.
God’s Anointed is appointed, and shall not be disappointed.
It doesn’t matter that this is the Old Testament, God had a plan.
From Genesis to Revelation God had one plan.
This life that we are living is not plan B, because God knows what he is doing.
This declaration is made, I have set my King on Zion.
It isn’t a threat.
It isn’t God thinking through what he is going to do.
It is a declaration.
God knows we live in this sinful world.
God hates sin.
I hate sin.
but even though he hates sin, sin doesn’t catch him by surprise.
Because he has never left plan A.
He knew he would send Jesus.
He knew that the anointed would come.
He has already appointed him.
We are facing a battle that he has already won.
So why can God sit on this throne and laugh at the people who think they know it all.
The people who are plotting against him?
Because he knows the end result.
and he knows that he has already won.
God’s plan cannot be derailed by man’s disobedience.
and this is all because we know there is a…
The Son Who Reigns (vv. 7-9)
The Son Who Reigns (vv. 7-9)
I will declare the Lord’s decree. He said to me, “You are my Son; today I have become your Father.
Ask of me, and I will make the nations your inheritance and the ends of the earth your possession.
You will break them with an iron scepter; you will shatter them like pottery.”
This is the point in the sermon where I know at least one of you is thinking Braden this is the old testament and you have been talking a whole lot about Jesus.
and I will lay my cards out to say that I am unashamed to say this passage is about Christ.
God is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow.
That goes both for who he is, but also that he is in control.
That Jesus was not created.
So yes, when this Psalm first dropped, this first album, many would have said that this was towards a worldly King.
The New Testament clearly reveals that Psalm 2 is pointing to Jesus.
Many of your Bibles might say for the title of this Psalm a coronation Psalm.
but the New Testament writers knew what this Psalm was getting at because it is quoted 10 times in the New Testament.
In the book of Acts Paul and Barnabas begin this mission journey together.
So they send the two of them out and their goal is to tell people about Jesus, to preach the Gospel.
The first place that they preach is in Antioch.
Paul gets up to start to preach and is going to share the Gospel.
But before he does this in Acts 13 he established his audience, and he says fellow Jews.
He is focusing in and talking to the Jews who would have believed the Old Testament, and telling them hey you need to follow this guy named Jesus.
So Paul goes through the timeline of the Old Testament saying all the things that God has promised, then he gets to David and says and God promised a Messiah from the line of David, and this Jesus is from the line of David.
Then he quotes scripture.
God has fulfilled this for us, their children, by raising up Jesus, as it is written in the second Psalm: You are my Son; today I have become your Father.
Paul knew that Psalm 2 was pointing to Jesus, and that is how he proved to the Jewish people that Jesus is who he says that he is and he is raised from the dead.
So again 9 other times this verse is quoted in the New Testament, and it shows that Jesus is the end goal.
and knowing that Jesus is the end goal reveals that…
Jesus is the one who is going to rule with all authority.
The Earth is his possession, everything is his.
And when he rules it will be with power.
He has an iron scepter and anything that gets in his way will be shattered like pottery.
Now the 21 year old youth guy in me wanted to do was bring a baseball bat and some pottery, so you guys could have a visual representation.
but I decided that would not be wise…
Just think about that illustration for a minute, it would not be very hard to break pottery with a iron rod.
This week during serve city there was a group that was tasked with taking sledge hammers and breaking up concrete.
Our group didn’t go to that job site, but I watched every Youth Pastor during the leaders meeting talk about how exhausted their group was from doing that.
but that requires a lot of force, pottery is not hard to break.
Jesus is going to come and nothing is going to get in his way.
It is like an ant trying to take on a human, it is not going to happen.
So we see this passage setting the stage, talking about the iron scepter, but we also see it in other places.
Then I saw heaven opened, and there was a white horse. Its rider is called Faithful and True, and with justice he judges and makes war.
His eyes were like a fiery flame, and many crowns were on his head. He had a name written that no one knows except himself.
He wore a robe dipped in blood, and his name is called the Word of God.
The armies that were in heaven followed him on white horses, wearing pure white linen.
A sharp sword came from his mouth, so that he might strike the nations with it. He will rule them with an iron rod. He will also trample the winepress of the fierce anger of God, the Almighty.
And he has a name written on his robe and on his thigh: King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
So when Christ returns, he is still the King of Kings, he is still the anointed, and he is still ruling the Nations.
God is on the throne, he has never left the throne, and will never leave the throne.
I am so thankful that the Lord Reigns.
And knowing that the Lord reigns…
We Must Respond (vv. 10-12)
We Must Respond (vv. 10-12)
So now, kings, be wise; receive instruction, you judges of the earth.
Serve the Lord with reverential awe and rejoice with trembling.
Pay homage to the Son or he will be angry and you will perish in your rebellion, for his anger may ignite at any moment. All who take refuge in him are happy.
In Psalm 1 we saw that there was two paths.
We hit the fork in the road and have to choose where we are going to go.
We had to decide if we were going down the way of the Word or the way of the world.
Now here at the ending of Psalm 2, we face the split again.
God’s Word drives us to action, where each of us as individuals have a choice.
It doesn’t matter that we are not kings, the choice to serve God is one that needs to be made.
We have been warned.
God lays out his plan before Jesus is even born.
This Psalm is again telling us about history. How God’s story is going to plan out.
It tells us that there is one who is greater coming.
Who will be King of Kings.
Who will do all of the things that we just discussed.
So we have been warned.
And part of this warning is to receive instruction.
Instruction comes from one place and that is God.
so the best way to know God’s instruction… is by God’s word.
It is said that if you want to hear God speak then read his Word out loud.
This is our instruction.
If we want to learn how to serve the Lord, we have to be people of the Book.
Sunday’s and Wednesday’s aren’t enough.
Your Great High King deserves more than that.
Do not take this book for granted.
Most of us probably all have more than one Bible, different version, on our phones, always on us.
They did not have that.
If they wanted to hear God’s word they would have to show up to the temple and hear them read it.
They had scrolls and unless you were rich, then you didn’t have any.
Imagine having to drive here every day to get your quiet time in.
Guys we have God’s word, so like this says, receive instruction, serve the Lord, follow the law, but to do that… open the Bible.
so this passage ends in the best way possible, by reiterating last week, there are only two paths.
this who passage has screamed the Lord reigns, the Lord reigns
but will we…
submit to the Lord who reigns and receive blessing.
or continue in wickedness and face judgement.
Psalm two gives us two options:
Will Christ be my refuge?
Will I face God’s wrath?
It is the two roads and there is a fork in the road.
I do not know your hearts, but what I know is the Bible says we are to pay homage to the Son.
The ESV says, kiss the Son.
in the ancient world, if you were to go before the King you would get on your knees and either kiss the ground, or kiss the Kings feet.
This was a sign of complete humility, obedience, and servitude.
and this is what Psalm two says, completely surrender to the Son, because those who take refuge in him are happy.
But those who don’t will perish in their rebellion.
So maybe there is somewhere here today who has not submitted to the Son.
They haven’t tasted of the living water.
And they are saying I want to follow him, not out of fear from this message, but from saying why would I not follow the true King.
Others of us have surrendered to the King.
But we are trying to stay hydrated by drinking salt water.
The nations are rebelling and you have given in.
You have slide backwards a little bit.
maybe you are struggling.
But it is important that you also know the Lord reigns, and through your struggles he is still on the throne.
and today as we have our time of response you just need to come up here and plea to him, to get back on path.
Then lastly, there are those who are bought in, we know he is on the throne, we are on a Spiritual high.
Maybe we just got done at serve city and feel great and encouraged.
or you’re just in a great place right now.
This alter is still yours.
One to thank Him for what he has done, but two the people of this Earth are going to try and tear you down.
The enemy does not want you to take refuge and be happy.
So it is okay to just come and pray for protection, to pray that the nations rebelling do not get in your way.
No matter where you are Psalm two tells us that there is a great high King, sitting on the throne, and all you have to do is submit to him and receive blessing.
Conclusion
I am going to pray, then we will have a time of response. Do not be afraid to move, this alter is yours.
but before I do that, I always end my sermons downstairs in the same way…
They asked if I was going to do it… then got mad at me when I told them no, so now I have to… so…
Any thoughts, comments, questions, concerns, stones for hersey?
if not, I’ll close us in prayer.
