Sermon Tone Analysis

A teacher was winding up a discussion in her fourth grade

class on the importance of curiosity.

Teacher: "Where would we be today if no one had ever been

curious?"

Child: "In the Garden of Eden?" \\ Introduction:

 

Why do people use Christ’s name as a curse?

They don’t say –

O Mohammed or O Allah

 

Jesus Christ’s name is upon the lips of more people who don’t know Him than on the lips of people who do know him.

! Story--------------------------------

A little boy was caught swearing by his teacher.

"Jeffrey," she said, "you shouldn't use that kind of language.

Where did you hear it?"

"My daddy said it," he responded.

"Well, it doesn't matter," explained the teacher, "you don't even know what it means."

"I do, so!" Jeffrey corrected.

"It means the car won't start."

----------------------------------------- \\ *Why is every cause a just cause in America*

- Animal Rights

-The Environment

-Homosexuality

 

Why is every religion acceptable:

Hinduism

Islam

Native American

Wiccan and Pagan Religion

Mysticism

Occult

Taoism

Scientology

Unitarian

Except for Christianity?

\\ As we Psalm 2 this evening, I think the answer to these questions will become obvious.

There is some evidence in both Jewish and Christian traditions that Psalm 2 was at one time joined to Psalm 1

 

This morning we considered

Two Men, Two Ways to live  and Two Destinies presented to us in Psalm 1.

In Psalm 2 we have the result of  the choice of  continuing upon the  wrong path and the consequences for doing so.

The doctrine of the two ways is continued in Psalm 2 and  the way of the wicked becomes a cosmic revolt of the nations against God and His Anointed

 

*1.

Man’s Rebellion*

*2.

God’s  Reaction*

*3.

Christ’s Exaltation*

*4.

Holy Spirit’s Conviction*

* *

* *

* *

\\ *I.

Man’s Rebellion*

 

Why do the nations conspire and the peoples plot in vain

*/ /*

*/The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers  gather together against the Lord and against his Anointed One./*

*/ /*

*/Let us break their chains and say, “Throw off their fetters”/*

*/ /*

The Nations here refers to the gentiles or those who don’t know the covenant keeping God of the Bible - YEHWEH

 

Spurgeon is quoted as saying,

/“We have, in these first three verses, a description of the hatred of human nature against the Christ of God/

* *

The kings of the earth have a common enemy….Yahweh

 

All the nations are united in their hatred toward God.. and His Anointed One

 

They ascribe to the notion that

“The enemy of my enemy is my friend”

* *

*Why is this so?

*

* *

*Perhaps Gen 11 can shed some light on the question.*

* *

1 Now the whole world had one language and a common speech.

2  As men moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there.

3          They said to each other, "Come, let's make bricks and bake them thoroughly."

They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar.

*4 Then they said, "Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth."*

5 But the LORD came down to see the city and the tower that the men were building.

6 The LORD said, "If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them.

7Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other."

8          So the LORD scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city.

*9 That is why it was called Babel-- because there the LORD confused the language of the whole world.

From there the LORD scattered them over the face of the whole earth.*

* *

*So what was so wrong with gathering in cities and  building a tower?*

* *

*As always, God looks at our motivation and we discover that motivation in verse 4*

* *

!! 4 Let us make a name for ourselves

* *

\\ *In Is 63:11-14 we discover that the *

*the prerogative for making a name belongs to God.*

* *

11 Then His people remembered the days of old, of Moses.

Where is He who brought them up out of the sea with the shepherds of His flock?

Where is He who put His Holy Spirit in the midst of them, 12 Who caused His glorious arm to go at the right hand of Moses, who divided the waters before them to make for himself an everlasting name, /13Who led them through the depths?

Like the horse in the wilderness, they did not stumble; 14As the cattle which go down into the valley, the Spirit of the LORD gave them rest.

So didst Thou lead Thy people, to make for thyself a glorious name.

NAS/

 

In trying to make a name for themselves, mankind is trying to usurp divine prerogatives.

Psalm 2:3 */ Let us break their chains they say and throw off their fetters”/*

 

Human beings are trying to grasp at what does not belong to them and to assert that they are no longer bound by the limits which God has set!

* *

*We fail to recognize that God is God *

*And we try both individually *

*and corporately *

*to take God’s place.*

* *

The building of the city is an attempt to counteract the effects of the Fall.

Rather than going and filling the earth as they were commanded, they gathered in cities to create power.

*Since the Fall,  Man has desired to build a society that  will enable him to live without reference to God*

!

Every human institution is designed to replace dependence upon God

 

!

The root of sin is Rebellion

Rebellion against God’s Lordship and the assertion of human autonomy …

…with out the need for God

 

Man refuses  to live in dependence upon the creator who is the Covenant Lord YAHWEH

 

This is where  the wicked discover themselves to be….

…In a never ending confrontation with the creator of the Universe.

And what is God’s reaction to this human endeavor?

*/The One enthroned in Heaven laughs!/*

\\ *2.

God’s Reaction      4-6*

 

Who is this One who is enthroned in Heaven?

He is the Covenant YAHWEH of the OT