The Rage of the Nations
Notes
Transcript
WELCOME:
We had a great Wednesday Bible Study. I think there were a total of 24 people there
We do have a design started on our new sign. They still have some work to do in it before we approve it.
We will take communion today.
SCRIPTURE READING:
Revelation 19:11–16 “And I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse, and He who sat on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and wages war. His eyes are a flame of fire, and on His head are many diadems; and He has a name written on Him which no one knows except Himself. He is clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God. And the armies which are in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, were following Him on white horses. From His mouth comes a sharp sword, so that with it He may strike down the nations, and He will rule them with a rod of iron; and He treads the wine press of the fierce wrath of God, the Almighty. And on His robe and on His thigh He has a name written, “KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.””
LET US STAND AND WORSHIP!
“The Goodness of God”
Words and Music by Hillsong’
PRAYER OF PRAISE FOR WHO GOD IS
Lord, thank you for your constancy. For never turning Your back on us, for never getting frustrated with us, for forgiving our sins, for allowing us to be part of Your plan. We ask that You would look down upon this gathering of people and fill our hearts with great joy today as we focus on You. Amen!
“What a beautiful Name”
Words and Music by Hillsong
“What a beautiful Name”
Words and Music by Hillsong
PRAYER OF ILLUMINATION TO OPEN OUR HEARTS
Lord, give us ears to hear Your voice and eyes to see Your glory. Would you this morning illuminate Your Word and make it known to us? Help us no to make application to others peoples’ lives, but to apply every Word to our own lives. Amen
SERMON
INTRODUCTION:
The Rage of the Nations. I don’t think this Psalm could come to us at a more fitting time in our nation than now. It begins with this, “why are the nations in an uproar, and the peoples devising vain things”…and it will go on to say against the Lord and His Christ.
We are living in a day where this is more evident than ever. People as a whole today seem to be ready to go to war with God. They don’t want God in the school, they don’t want God in government, they don’t want God in their lives.
Where are we going to end up if things continue to go the way they have been going? The people at war with God…Will they eventually remove Him altogether? Who’s in charge of this world? Does man rule? Does man decide the fate, the direction? This Psalm provides the answers to those questions.
Psalm 2 is divided into four stanzas, and I’m going to give a heading for each stanza before we look at them closely:
The hostility of the unbelieving world towards God
The hostility of the unbelieving world towards God
Why are the nations in an uproar And the peoples devising a vain thing? The kings of the earth take their stand And the rulers take counsel together Against the Lord and against His Anointed, saying, “Let us tear their fetters apart And cast away their cords from us!”
Explanation:
I love the way this Psalm begins…it begins questioning the behavior of humanity as a whole. It’s the same question often asked by the church today: Why are people so vehemently against God? Why are the nations in an uproar and devise vain things?”
Now we may be tempted to question that statement. Do people really act that way towards God? I think all we have to do is look at Calvary and see what they did to Jesus. It started with the hatred of a few and then pretty soon the people all handed together and falsely accused Him, then spit in His face, and then beat Him, and then hung Him on a cross in front of the whole world to die in shame. The ultimate act of hated is murder. And history has proven that the world hates God.
I remember listening to Phil Robertson in a podcast say something similar….he said, “he keeps life simple, stay in the woods, love God, love your neighbor, and he can’t see why more people cannot get on board with that!”
And I think that is how much of the church feels towards the world’s hostility towards God. Is it really necessary?? Is it such a bad thing to love God and love your neighbor? Is it really that bad to forgive others, to do unto others as you would have them do unto you? Is it really that bad to gather together with believers once a week and sing hymns and songs in worship to God? If it really that bad to try and live a life that pleases God?!
I think we see that very clearly in our own country. I don’t know how many church shootings we have had over the years. A security team in the church was unheard of 50 years ago, now they are common practice in nearly every church. A politician who expresses his faith too much has no chance of getting elected. People do not want God in their lives.
So what do they do?
“The kings of the earth take their stand and take counsel against the Lord and His Anointed”
That is, the world bands together as one big army conspiring on how to overthrow God.
Now how would people take a stand against God? It’s not like man can make his way into heaven and fight with God or throw God off the throne. Well no, but one thing they do is try to silence Him.
1) They launch an all out attack on the voice of God. That’s is what we see in our world today. They claim the Bible is not true, they claim the church is a joke, they try to remove any principle from the Word of God that they do not like.
➢Just take our nations recent assassination. Why was Charlie Kirk killed in cold blood in front of thousands of students and in font of the whole world? And then instead of sorrow, his death was celebrated by tens of thousands of people?
Because Charlie Kirk communicated biblical principles and Scripture to thousands upon thousands of college age students and they hated it! And that hatred turned to murder because people do not want to hear God’s truth.
➢When Charlie Kirk was assassinated, members of congress called for prayer and the democratic members refused to join others in prayer.
➢You will not find a science book that teaches there is a Creator. Only evolution. College professors as a whole will go out of their way to belittle God and the Bible.
➢
What do people have against God?
(v 3) “Let us tear their fetters apart and cast away their cords from us”
A fetter is a devise used to bind someone. It was used on people who were imprisoned to keep them contained and in custody.
The same idea is conveyed by “casting their cords from us”
People become hostile toward God because they think God puts them legs in fetters and their hands tied in cords and they lose all the great things in life.
Think about this nation for example: Why do people in the United States of America hate God today?
Much of the hatred stems from the LGBTQ movement because the Bible clearly condemns homosexuality. And they do not want to hear anything that speaks against their chosen way of life. Why? Because they think God only wants to restrict them from having all the things that will make them happy and bring fulfillment.
People want live together before they are married, and the Bible condemns it.
People live a life chasing money and the Bible condemns it.
People do not want God telling them how to live. They feel like God is trying to take something from them. So they say lets take our stands against God and get rid of these chains!
But do you know what God actually does for people?
He sets them free from the slavery they are currently in. All of the things people run after in this life, they do so because they cannot help it! They worship the creation rather than the Creator!
Drugs, alcohol, perversion, greed, sexual immorality, all of these things are really VICES that have people under their control.
The truth about the Lord is not that he puts fetters on us, but that He actually removes the fetters from us and allows us to live lives of true freedom.
People say if I am not enslaved to God, them I am free! The Bible says, if you are not a slave to God, then you are a slave to sin and your bondage has consequences that will last for eternity.
And how does God set people free?
By the Lord’s Anointed. That word Anointed means Messiah, or Christ. It is a direct reference to the Lord Jesus Christ who would come roughly 600 years later and set people free from the bondage of sin.
Someone who was “Anointed” in the Scripture were set aside for God’s special purposes. Kings were anointed, priests were anointed, and at times prophets were anointed.
Jesus is the Anointed One who came to die for the sins of the world and set people free from the bondage of slavery. No man will ever be truly free until He comes and lays his life down to Jesus.
God’s response to man’s hostility: Laughter!
God’s response to man’s hostility: Laughter!
He who sits in the heavens laughs, The Lord scoffs at them. Then He will speak to them in His anger And terrify them in His fury, saying, “But as for Me, I have installed My King Upon Zion, My holy mountain.”
Explanation:
You gotta love God’s response here: He laughs. People make all these vain attempts to get rid of God, to silence God, to remove God altogether from humanity and HE LAUGHS!
Can you imagine a man coming up to a lion and trying to challenge him? The lion would annihilate him!
I am telling you those who stand up against the Lion of Judah will end up with the same fate!
Two things right here why God laughs and scoffs at man vain attempt to get rid of Him
(1) “He who sits in the heavens”
Now the psalmist is not saying because God dwells in the heaven and man cannot get to Him. But that God is not simply existing in the heavens but SEATED in the heavens. What is God seated on in the heavens? ON HIS THRONE
➢ Here’s the point: THE LORD RULES THE ENTIRE WORLD. The Bible teacher this over and over. God is SOVEREIGN. GOD IS IN CONTROL! GOD CALLS THE SHOTS!
There is no power higher than God. There is no one who controls the weather but God, nor people, nor calamities, nor diseases, nor miracles, nor every breath of man comes from God!
➢ People fear disease, [remember when COVID came? I remember when we heard COVID had made its way to Pembroke and everyone locked their doors and stayed inside.
➢ People fear war with Russia and Korea and Iran
➢ People fear presidents and leaders
➢ But do you know what the greatest threat against humanity is? It is God. There is no greater threat to humanity than Almighty God
(2) The second reason God laughs and scoffs is because, “He has installed His king upon Zion”
As God sits in the heavens, so Jesus has been established on the earth! In other words, the rulers and kings may think that they rule the earth, but it has already been decided by God that greatest King in the world is King Jesus Christ. He is in charge of this world, and He is in charge of this earth. Every ruler is under His rule
He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things have been created through Him and for Him.
Presidents may rule nations for now, but they have no power over Jesus.
And God wants the world to know that no matter what man does, this will always be true.
Application
Man may make every attempt to get rid of God, but every attempt will be in vain. It doesn’t matter how ungodly this nation turns or how ungodly the world turns, God will always be deeply involved in humanity.
➢ TRUTH: There has never time in human history when God is not actively and evidently involved in the affairs of mankind! And there has never been a time when God has stopped speaking! And there has never been a time when God is not over the heavens and over the earth!
So when it seems like things are going completely against us, we need to remember who sits on the throne.
And when we are faced with decisions of whether we will do what this world wants us to do, or what God wants us to do, we must remember who sits on the throne!
And when we are making decisions for our future, WE MUST REMEMBER WEHO HOLDS OUR FUTURE!
Its is not the president of the united states. It is God!
The decree of God: Jesus will rule the entire world
The decree of God: Jesus will rule the entire world
“I will surely tell of the decree of the Lord: He said to Me, ‘You are My Son, Today I have begotten You. ‘Ask of Me, and I will surely give the nations as Your inheritance, And the very ends of the earth as Your possession. ‘You shall break them with a rod of iron, You shall shatter them like earthenware.’ ”
Explanation:
“He said to Me, You are my Son”
Now we need to ask ourselves who is talking to who? It is the Lord who is saying, “You are My Son”.
But who is the Son in this verse?
The NT in several places provides that answer:
Acts 13:33 “that God has fulfilled this promise to our children in that He raised up Jesus, as it is also written in the second Psalm, ‘You are My Son; today I have begotten You.’”
Hebrews 5:5 “So also Christ did not glorify Himself so as to become a high priest, but He who said to Him, “You are My Son, Today I have begotten You”
IT IS JESUS!
➢ So what we have here in the OT, before the incarnation of Jesus is a conversation going on between God the Father and God the Son.
And I can’t understand why so many people have trouble believing in the Trinity. Evidence of the Trinity is sprinkled all over the pages of the OT!
Jesus’ beginning was not when Mary gave birth to Jesus! Jesus has always been one with the Father, He has always existed, we worship a triune God because the God of the Bible is a Triune God, and has ALWASY been a triune God!.
And is God saying to Jesus?
“I will surely give you the nations as Your inheritance, and the earth as Your possession”
Notice all the future tenses, “I will surely give you the nations”
That is there is coming a day when these nations will no longer belong to earthly rulers but will all come under the rule and kingship of Jesus. The Kingdom of God will come one day in its fullness.
The Kingdom of God has come to earth, but not in its fullness
Matthew 3:2 “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
Luke 17:20–21 He answered them and said, “The kingdom of God is not coming with signs to be observed; nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or, ‘There it is!’ For behold, the kingdom of God is in your midst.”
That is to say that the kingdom of God is already here. It came when Jesus stepped down from heaven and onto earth.
Jesus rules today in the hearts and lives of His people, and all those who are in the kingdom of God are led by God!
BUT there is coming a day when the kingdom of God will come in its fullness.
That is it will, be manifest, visible, and concrete: and we see that in the book of Revelation
Revelation 11:15–16 (NASB95)
Then the seventh angel sounded; and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ; and He will reign forever and ever.”
And that is what this verse is talking about. It is a decree that no matter how things may seem to be in those days, or how they may seem to be today, there is coming a day when Jesus will rule the entire world in fullness
How will He rule?
(v 9) “You shall break them with a rod of iron, You shall shatter them like earthenware”
Think about what happens when a solid steel rod comes into contact with a clay pot. It shatters it. Breaks it into pieces and does not hurt the iron rod whatsoever.
God said it is going to be like this when the nations rage against Jesus Christ. They will be shattered and broken, for they will not even stand a chance.
People wonder that’s this world is coming to. It’s coming to Jesus. Jesus owns this word, it has been given to Him by God, Jesus rules this world, it has been decreed by the king, and anyone who ethnics they can dwell here without submission to Jesus will be broken like a clay pot hit with a rod of iron.
Matthew 21:44 ““And he who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; but on whomever it falls, it will scatter him like dust.””
The wisdom in submitting to Jesus
The wisdom in submitting to Jesus
Now therefore, O kings, show discernment; Take warning, O judges of the earth. Worship the Lord with reverence And rejoice with trembling. Do homage to the Son, that He not become angry, and you perish in the way, For His wrath may soon be kindled. How blessed are all who take refuge in Him!
Explanation:
That is every person who stands against God, or tries to silence God, or tries to resist God is called to be wise and worship God.
This Psalm teaches us it is a foolish thing to rebel against the Most High King and think that somehow in the end everything will work out.
I love what we see here, because this is not na angry God who cannot wait to destroy people, but a gracious God who willing to forgive and show kindness and favor to anyone who would turn to Him.
What we see here is the merciful heart of God going out to all the world.
Application:
I can tell you right now, no matter what you have done, or how much bad you have in your past, God will forgive your sins if you will turn to Him.
God does not say to the broken and contrite spirit, depart from Me!
God says to those who come to Him, “He will by no means cast them away”.
So how are people to turn to Jesus here?
“Worship the lord with reverence”
This does not mean come into a church service and sing songs to God. The word has connotations such as serve, and obey, and pay homage to!
Its the ida of coming into the presence of the grandest King who has ever sat on a throne.
How would we respond to them?
Ashley and I went and watched a movie Friday: “Downton Abbey”. And it was amazing in this movie how much different life is portrayed then and how it is lived now.
Well the prince came to a party where all these royal people were and the King stepped into this home, the host bowed down and payed homage to the king. And in fear and trembling she served the prince, and led the prince upstairs to the ballroom, and Im sure offered him the best seat in the house.
Similar to that we are to see Jesus. Not as a mere man, not as just a Savior, but as the King of Kings. And He deserves our worship, and He deserves our service, and He deserves our homage, and He deserves our entire lives!
And to anyone who does not give their all to Him, can not call Him their King.
“How blessed are those who take refuge in Him”
What a great promise to al of us who are constantly pressured to take refuge in this world, in king, in rulers, in others, or in Jesus.
Blessed are those who take refuge in Him
~PRAYER~
COMMUNION
You do not have to be a member of this church to take communion. But you do have to be a Christian. That is not my call, but Paul’s instruction.
If you are in Christ, then please join us in this ordinance as we partake of the Lord’s Supper together.
Let’s take a moment to confess our sins to the Lord and get right with Him now.
Part of Jesus’ exaltation is because of Jesus’ humble incarnation. And His incarnation would be pointless without His death and resurrection. Thats what this ordinance is about. It is a call to remember the death and resurrection, and what that means to us.
The kings of the earth take their stand And the rulers take counsel together Against the Lord and against His Anointed, saying,
Invite those to take a piece of bread
Say: The early church referenced this verse when speaking about the death of Jesus. His body was broken for us. He was killed for our benefit. And by His stripes we are healed
Pray
Jesus said, “This is My body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me.”
1 Corinthians 11:25 “In the same way He took the cup also after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood; do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.””
Invite those to come receive a cup
Say: This cup symbolizes our redemption. It is ONLY by the blood of Christ that we can know Jesus as King.
Pray
Drink the cup
CLOSING PRAYER
