On the topic of psalms, you can turn there to the psalms, to Psalm 2, which we consider a wonderful coronation psalm this morning for our morning's meditation. In Psalm 2, we have words fitly rendered not only for God's enemies, but also for God's people. For God's people, certainly a comfort, comforted by divine realities, but for God's people, terror, and horror over the one who stands as judge and king over them. We'll read all of Psalm 2 and then we will open it up, Lord willing, to the benefit of all of you.
Why do the nations rage and the people plot a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against His Christ, saying, Let us break their bonds in pieces and cast away their cords from us. He who sits in the heavens shall laugh. The Lord shall hold them in derision.
Then He shall speak to them in His wrath and distress them in His deep displeasure. Yet I have set my king on my holy hill of Zion. I will declare the decree. The Lord has said to me, you are my son.
Today I have begotten you. Ask of me and I will give you the nations for your inheritance and the ends of the earth for your possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron. You shall dash them to pieces like a potter's vessel.
Now therefore, be wise, O kings, Be instructed, you judges of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all those who put their trust in him.
Amen. Well, let's open in prayer. God, we thank You again for the fact that we can gather now in this aspect of worship, the preaching of Your Word. We pray, Lord God, that You would be both with speaker and with hearer.
We pray, Lord God, for the speaker that You would grant strength from on high and all that is required to do justice to Your holy Word though fallibly. And we pray, Lord God, that You'd grant to the hearer the ministry of the Holy Spirit, that saints would be lifted up and sinners would be saved to the praise of Your name. And we pray that whenever we do this, Father, All that we do and all that is spoken would be done unto the praise of Your name. And we would ask, Father, that we would gain much insight and much instruction and much comfort from the pages of Holy Scripture this morning.
Help us to leave this place, Lord God, rejoicing in Your most holy name. And it's in Christ's name that we plead and pray. Amen. For those of you who don't know, Pastor Butler is traveling home tomorrow, I believe, so we can remember to be in prayer for Pastor Butler, and he will return to preach from this pulpit next Lord's Day.
Introduction
Well, Psalm 2 that we just read, is a coronation psalm. It is a kingship psalm. We should note right from the outset that this psalm is about Jesus Christ. The pages of the New Testament bear this out.
This passage of scripture is alluded to many places in the gospel accounts, in the book of Acts, in the book of Revelation, and elsewhere. So this is a psalm about the Lord Jesus Christ, about that promise son of David who would come according to the lineage of David and be the king who would be installed never to be deposed. The king that would be installed never to be taken off his throne, but would rule with justice and equity for eternity. That's what this psalm is generally about, specifically who the psalm is about.
Now, the flow of the psalm is such that it introduces the rebellion of humanity, the response from the throne room and then the recommendation, to put it lightly, from that self-same throne room. We're going to look at the psalm under three particular headings. First off, the arrogant rebellion, verses 1-3. Secondly, the awesome response, verses 4-9.
And thirdly, the sobering instruction, verses 10-11. But it's important to note, again, that this psalm is speaking concerning Christ Jesus. We when when we come to the pages of the Old Testament, we do it injustice if we do not make at least the general observation of what Christ makes in Luke 24, that all the Psalms, the prophets and the law spoke concerning me. And, of course, when the New Testament bears out the fact that this Psalm 2, this Psalm of David, though it doesn't say a Psalm of David here, it does in the New Testament, this Psalm of David is speaking concerning Christ.
The verse, you are my son, today I have begotten you, is referenced or alluded to the most in the pages of the New Testament. But also, you shall break them with a rod of iron. You shall dash them to pieces like a potter's vessel is spoken of concerning Christ in the book of Revelation. But
The Arrogant Rebellion
we're going to look first off at the arrogant rebellion, verses 1 to 3. Notice how the psalmist begins the psalm. Why do the nations rage? And the people plot a vain thing.
We have to ask ourselves, in understanding that, why is the psalmist asking that question? Well, there's a couple reasons, or there's a couple things that are not behind the asking of the question. First off, the psalmist is not without an answer to the question. David here, the psalmist, knows the facts and the reality of sin.
David is, of course, aware of the ethical reality that resides behind the nation's rage. and the reason why they plot a vain thing. David knows this concerning his own heart. I was brought forth. Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me.
He knows that it's not only the case with him, but it's the case with every human under heaven. Every man and woman, boy and girl, has that ethical reality from their birth by virtue of Adam, their first parent. They are brought forth from the womb speaking lies. They are brought forth from the womb and they are brought forth devising wickedness, even as babies, as it's been said before.
It's not too quickly after birth that they learn no, that they learn mine, that they learn rebellion. against their parents and ultimately against the living and true God. So it's not the case that David is asking this question. Why? As if he doesn't know a reason.
Why are the nations raging? Why are the peoples plotting a vain thing? He knows the ethical reality of sin, the grave reality that people everywhere rebel against the living and true God and all of his perfections. He's not asking this question out of some sort of sinful anxiety.
We're charged in the pages of Holy Scripture to be anxious in nothing. David is not somehow nervous and anxious. Why do the nations rage and the people plot a vain thing? He has the certainty and the confidence that God will deal, that God is enthroned on high.
In fact, he says that in the verses that follow. He who sits in heaven shall laugh. We know that David has confidence. But also in Psalm 3, if it's on the same page or the next page of your Bible, verse 6, I will not be afraid of ten thousands of people who have set themselves against me all around.
Why? Because God is his God. The triune Jehovah is His God. And so this is not the case that He's anxious or He does not know the reason for their raging and for their planning of vain things.
So what is the reason? Well, I think it's twofold. First off, Psalm 2 follows Psalm 1. If you can turn back to Psalm 1 for a moment and verse 4.
Psalm 1 and verse 4. The ungodly are not so, but are like the chaff which the wind drives away. Therefore, the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. For the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the ungodly shall perish.
David reveals these realities that the ungodly will perish. God will judge them. They'll be driven away like wind drives away the chaff. So then, verse 1 of Psalm 2, why do the nations rage and the people's plot a vain thing?
The reality has been introduced in Psalm 1. God will deal with you. The ungodly will not prosper. They will perish.
They will find the bad side of judgment. So then why would you rage? Why would you plot a vain thing when this is the certain reality? And secondly, David knows God.
David knows God and he knows His perfections, His character, His nature, and all of those blessed attributes. Because of verse 4, He who sits in the heavens shall laugh, the Lord shall hold them in derision. The implication, His sovereignty. Why in light of the sovereignty of God would you rail against this one?
It's the insanity of the pots trying to mount a rebellion against the potter. It's ridiculous. Why would you try to engage in mutiny against the creator, the sustainer, the provider, the one who put you into this earth and gave you breath, who can take away your breath in an instant? Why would you engage in vain things and why would you rage against this one?
But also an aspect of his character that David knows intimately, that God of Psalm 32, the one who covers sin, the one who will not impute iniquity. Why would you rage against the One who can heal you? Why would you rage against the One who provides such eternal loving kindness and mercy? Why would you do that?
I know this same God. I know this King who is righteous and who blesses all those who put their trust in Him. I was the ungodly King. I was the ungodly king who sent Uriah to the forefront of the hottest battle.
I was the one who sent him there and had him be killed. I was the one who used that to cover up adultery with his wife. And yet Jesus, yet the Lord God rested upon me His eternal mercy and His loving kindness. He covered me.
He covered my sin and He did not impute me with iniquity. Jesus, or sorry, David knows the character of God. And so he asks the question, why do the nations rage and the people plot a vain thing? I think more clearly and more specifically in the context, though, this reflects the nature of God as sovereign judge and unmovable king. over these rulers and over these people plotting vain things.
It is a ridiculous thing. It is absolute vanity to rebel against the sovereign creator and sustainer of the universe. Notice the objects of their rebellion. We have the facts stated, most certainly by way of a question.
Why do the nations rage and the people plot a vain thing?
Objects of the Rebellion
Notice the objects of their rebellion, of course, and this is something of a reiteration. But the text brings this out. The kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against his Christ. Rebellion isn't just some, you know, some ethereal, mysterious rebellion that does not terminate upon objects of that rebellion.
Clearly, they are anti-God and anti-Christ. They will get to it in a moment, but they will not have this triune Jehovah to rule over them. They will not have the Creator, the Sustainer, the Redeemer to be the sovereign over them. They want autonomy.
They want self-rule. They will not have anything. of the Lord and of his Christ. Jim made a reference to this in his sermon last Sunday, that the nations of the earth are usually always at odds with one another. Yeah, there's various alliances and that sort of thing, but you look at the Canadian Parliament and you can nary get two people to agree on anything.
You look at, if you ever, I don't watch a whole lot of it, but C-SPAN and those sorts of things where they have all these people arguing for hours over sometimes the silliest things. They can never, ever agree on anything. Pastor Butler mentioned last time, but they will agree on this, that we will not have this Lord and this Christ to rule over us. Those previously at odds come together and mount their rebellion against God and Christ. against the Lord God and against his Christ saying, let us break their bonds in pieces and cast away their cords from us.
Target: The Law of God
The specific target of their attack is the law of God. That's what this language is. Let us break their bonds. in pieces and cast away their cords from us. We do not want to be bound to the righteous precepts of a triune Jehovah.
We do not want to have cords connecting them to us for us to bear out righteousness in the earth. We want autonomy. We want self-rule. We will not have this man to rule over us.
The parable in Luke 19. And so the specific target of their rebellion, of their vanity, is the law of the living and true God. And it perplexes us. It ought to perplex us as Christians as to why they would rebel against the law of God.
The Scriptures call it the law of liberty. That's what the writers of Holy Scripture call the law of God. It's not the imposition of a tyrannical iron-fisted God. It's the law of liberty.
When did God give the law? You've heard this many times from the pulpit. When did God give the law? After he redeemed people from out of the land of Egypt.
He didn't give the Ten Commandments and then say, if you obey these, Then I will redeem you out of the land of Egypt. No, in his mercy and in his eternal condescending loving kindness, he visited them with redemption, bringing them out of bondage. And then he says, I am the Lord, your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt. And then he gives them the 10 words, not as some harsh imposition, but as mandates and precepts from a loving God to hedge them in, to guard them, to protect their hearts, and to cause them to walk in righteousness.
It's a beautiful thing, the law of God. And it is rebellion against God. It is sin that is a corpus of bondage. Or those things that men, those in rebellion, the nations who are raging, the people plotting vain things, their own man-made precepts and their laws of autonomy that they set up, those are the things that keep them in bondage.
Sin is a terrible and a horrific mistress, but the liberty and fidelity to the lamb, the bridegroom, there is great liberty in that. Great liberty. So why would the nations rage? Why would they plot a vain thing?
Why is their specific target the law of God? Because they don't like it. They don't want to be tied to men, do not want to be tied to the law of God. They will have nothing of it.
The Ethical Reality of Sin
You turn to Romans for a moment just to see that by nature, the ethical reality of people everywhere. unless they are touched by the amazing and sovereign and free grace of God unto salvation, is such that they rebel time and again, time immemorial, against the Lord and against His Christ. Romans 8, verse 7, Because the carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. So then those who are in the flesh cannot please God. They're not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be.
They are constantly in rebellion. It is their custom to devise wickedness, to cut the cords from the divine throne room and to break their bonds in pieces. They want self-rule. They want autonomy.
They will not have this one to rule over them. So the specific target of the attack is the law of God. Now moving on, and we'll make references to this arrogant rebellion as we move through now the awesome response.
The Awesome Response
Notice the awesome response beginning in verse four. He who sits in the heavens shall laugh. The Lord shall hold them in derision.
God Who Sits in the Heavens
Notice, first off, the one responding. It would have been OK. It would have been reasonable. Would have been acceptable for the psalmist to say, God shall laugh.
They're rebelling against God and against his Christ. They're saying, let us break their bonds and pieces and cast away their cords from us. Would have been legitimate to say in their awesome response, God shall laugh. But there is a reason why God is described this way.
He who sits in the heavens shall laugh. Psalm 115, why should the Gentiles say, so where is their God? Our God is in the heavens. He does whatever He pleases.
You see, they're setting the God, the only living and true God, against anything else, against anyone else who would argue for supremacy, who would argue for sovereignty, who would argue for mastery in their kingship. He who sits in the heavens shall laugh. That description of God is always rendered as a means of mocking the heathen and the pagan deities and the nations. Your gods have eyes, but they see not.
Your gods have ears, but they hear not. Your gods can do nothing, and you are like your gods. But our God is the triune Jehovah, and he sits in the heavens, and he does whatever he pleases. And so this awesome response uses as ammunition the sovereignty and the universal mastery of God.
He who sits in the heavens shall laugh. He'll have nothing of your rebellion. He'll have nothing of your attempts at mutiny. In fact, he laughs at you.
And this laughter isn't to be something like we would equate to a child up in a tree fort laughing and tackling at other kids on the ground trying to throw rocks at him. This sort of laughter is rendered or is given to us in the context of the Lord holding them in derision. This is what Matthew Henry says, Matthew Henry, with regards to this language of holding them in derision. The attempts of Christ's enemies are easily ridiculed.
God laughs at them as a company of fools. Now, this is to give us as the church great comfort. Because we can very often fail with regards to Paul's admonition, Paul's command, really, be anxious in nothing. But with prayer and supplication, mingled with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.
We can fail there, and when we look upon the world, when we see, you know, the growth of Islam and nations softening their stance against Muslim and Sharia law, we can tremble and we can become anxious and nervous when we see enemies prevailing, when we see the tents of robbers prosper, but the righteous affected and suffering. And we can take our eyes away from the fact that he who sits in the heavens shall laugh. The Lord shall hold them in derision. God's eyes are in every place beholding, and we ought never to fear.
Turn to Psalm 37 for a moment, because this language is clear there also and grants some meaning to what the psalmist is saying here. Psalm 37. Psalm 37, beginning in verse 12. Same language as Psalm 2.
The wicked plots against the just and gnashes at him with his teeth. The Lord laughs at him, for he sees that his day is coming. Isn't that great for the people of God? That our Lord God is not up in heaven trembling over His inability to punctuate time and history and affect things.
It is a horrible blasphemy when disasters come into the world. Natural disasters or things of great calamity. And so-called Christians go on TV shows and say, well, you know, the Lord is crying with you. You can put your head on His shoulder because He's right there with you.
He can't do anything. If He could, He would. But He's set earth upon the shelf. He's twisted the little thing there, the little gears.
And time and history are moving forward. And you just have to pray to Him. Pray that things will go well. Note, God is in the heavens.
He does whatever He pleases. The psalmist issues not a warning, but a wake-up call to the mariners who travel the seas in Psalm 107. Those merchant mariners that travel the seas, and they know the sovereignty of God. For He is the one who sends the winds and He lifts up the waves of the sea.
He calms the storm so that its waves are still. Our God is the sovereign master of his universe, of his creation, and he, in response to the rebelling of the nations, shall laugh. He shall hold them as a company of fools, hold them in derision, hold them in scorn, hold them in contempt of court for their mutiny, for their madness against him. And again, this is to shine the light more on the vanity the vain rebellion of the people who are raging.
Kids, when we use the term vanity, we simply mean something that is, I don't want to use that word, something that's mad. Something that, given the reality of a situation, is just madness to try and engage in. For example, and sort of related to this, it would be vanity for me to try and body check a Sherman tank. In a war, if I was to try and body check a Sherman tank, that would be vanity, because it weighs 7 billion times more than me, and I'm just going to bounce off it and break my shoulder.
It would be vanity to try and put out a fire with a barrel of turpentine. Why? Well, don't try it to find out. It would be vanity to try and file out of prison bars with a spaghetti noodle.
Wouldn't it? If you're in prison, and I hope you never are for criminal activity, but if you're in prison, never waste your time trying to file out of a prison bar with a spaghetti noodle. I think that makes sense to you. It's vanity for the nations to rage, for the peoples to plot a vain thing, to be anti-God and anti-Christ, to try and break the bonds of Christ, to try and break the cords of the triune Jehovah.
It doesn't make sense. Why would you do such things? You are a company of fools. And again, the nature of the response, we've looked at that.
God laughs. God holds them in derision.
God's Insurmountable Counterattack
The insurmountable counterattack. It's the language I'm applying to verse 6. You see, we need to read verse 6, if we can, immediately after verse 3 in thinking about how this psalm is flowing. The rebellious nations and those raging say, let us break their bonds in pieces and cast away their cords from us.
But God says, yet I have set my king on my holy hill of Zion. You see, they're trying to mount this mutinous attack against God. And this is his emphatic answer. Yet I have set my king on my holy hill of Zion.
This is the insurmountable counterattack from the divine throne room. OK, you're going to bring that. But I am the one who sits in the heavens and laughs and I'm going to bring this. And there's nothing you can do about it.
So God sets forth his answer, his awesome response from the throne room in rendering This verbal answer to their verbal rebellion. Yet I have set my king on my holy hill of Zion. And I often try and fit this text into every sermon that I preach. So I'm going to do it again.
David knows something about this one upmanship in his life and in his goings forth of defending God and country. David knows what it is to answer a silly and a vain threatening. Remember in his discourse, we can call it that, with Goliath. Goliath says, today I'm going to take your head from you and feed you to the beasts of the field.
David responds, though, because he knows that the living and true Jehovah is on his side. And he says, no, Goliath. I'm paraphrasing. No, Goliath.
Today, I'm going to take your head from you, but I'm also going to deliver the entirety of the army of the Philistines to the birds of the air and to the beasts of the field. You don't mess with the armies of the living and true God. Who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God? And God, Jesus Christ, the greater than David, renders this declaration.
God the Father, in this case, renders this greater declaration against the rebels and against those who engage in vanity. I have set my king on my holy hill of Zion. It continues here, and we need to see this.
The Coronation and Universal Rule
We need to see this in relation to time and history. And we'll actually look more at this tonight. The historical fulfillment of this particular psalm in Acts chapter 4. But God installs His King.
There is a coronation ceremony that takes place. I will declare the decree. The Lord has said to me, this is Jesus speaking, The Lord has said to me, you are my son today. I have begotten you.
Ask of me and I will give you the nations for your inheritance and the ends of the earth for your possession. This is fulfilled. peculiarly in the ascension, the resurrection and ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ. You remember in the prophecy of the ascension in Daniel 7, 13 and 14, Daniel sees the vision in the night visions. He sees one like the Son of Man coming to the Ancient of Days.
And what happens? The Ancient of Days bestows upon him glory and dominion and a kingdom. This took place with that resurrection and ascension complex where Jesus Christ is given that official declaration of king of the universe. That's what he declares to his disciples in Matthew 28, 18.
All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. We ought to notice here, by way of a brief aside, that this is not a text that argues for the creaturehood or creatureship, whatever the language should be, of Jesus Christ. You are my son. Today I have begotten you.
This water doesn't seem to be working. I'm going to have to bear with me for a few more minutes while I try and struggle through talking. If Steve's ready to preach tonight, that would be. Good, I'll be calling you at 415.
But just to continue, here we have again, this isn't God, the father, creating Jesus Christ by an act, by a creative act. Today, I have begotten you creatively speaking. This speaks to the language of unique installation of a ruling monarch. Today I have begotten you.
In the context, obviously, that's what's going on. Yet I have set my king on my holy hill of Zion. I will declare the decree. The Lord has said to me, you are my son.
Today I have begotten you. And notice, the scope of the king's rule is not just Jerusalem. Of course it isn't. Notice the language of the psalm.
Ask of me and I will give you the nations for your inheritance and the ends of the earth for your possession. Jesus Christ is not a local ruling monarch. He is a universal ruling monarch. If there are people plotting vain things and Nations raging in North America.
It's not as if Jesus is saying, well, that's outside the scope of my rule. If you move over to the realm of the southeast Mediterranean, then I'll be able to deal with your comforts and with your issues. No, Jesus Christ is the ruler over the heavens and the earth. The nations are given to him.
The ends of the earth are given to him. And
The King's Judgment
notice the activity and the judgment rendered by this great king. You shall break them with a rod of iron. You shall dash them to pieces like a potter's vessel. You know, it's unfortunate.
Evangelism in our modern era certainly has lost something, hasn't it? What a what a shame and a mistreatment and an injudicious use of how the scripture evangelizes. Is it to come to come to the nations and those the nations raging and the people's plotting a vain thing and saying Jesus has a wonderful plan for your life? Isn't that the verbiage of some of modern day evangelism?
Not to cast a lifted-nose snobbish indictment of them, but would you go to the nations raging and the peoples plotting a vain thing and say, you just need to fill that Jesus-shaped hole in your heart? This Jesus stands not as one who is meek and feeble, carrying sheep and drinking tea, but the sovereign monarch who shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them to pieces like a potter's vessel, unless they kiss the sun, unless they bend a knee and call him King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Evangelism has lost something when we come to these and we don't say, now, therefore, be wise, O kings. Be instructed, you judges of the earth.
Kiss the sun, lest he be angry and you perish in the way. We need to bring to bear the reality that they are in an active and consistent and perpetual rebellion against the living and true Christ, who has been set upon the holy hill of Zion, who has all rule and all authority. They don't need to fill a Jesus-shaped hole in their heart. They need to bend a knee in worship and revere the King of kings and Lord of lords and find mercy and blessing in putting their trust in Him.
Beware those who are at the last day and before the judge of heaven and earth have not kissed the Son and have not bent the knee to Him.
The Sobering Instruction
Let's move then, since we're there already, to the sobering instruction. See, this is the practical application of what David has already written concerning this God and his Christ. The scripture does this all over the place, giving us theological and grand truths regarding God and his Christ, and then bringing it to bear upon the audience now, therefore. Very important now.
These people, whoever is reading this, whoever is considering these things, it is time now to pay attention. We're bringing to bear this God who sits in the heavens and laughs against those company of fools. We're bringing this to bear now upon your soul, upon your conscience. So now pay attention.
Be wise, O kings. Be instructed, you judges of the earth. Bear to exercise wisdom. They are to be instructed.
The Bible brings it back very often, not to some ethereal principle or some ambiguous spiritualism, but to wisdom and instruction. Wisdom and instruction. Come, let us reason together, God says. Come, let us reason together.
I've given you a mind. I've created you in my own image. Now, be wise, O kings. Be instructed, you judges of the earth.
And not only are they to be wise, not only are they to be instructed, but
Rendering Allegiance to Christ
they are to render allegiance. They are to be obedient to this ruling potentate. Now, therefore, be wise, O kings, be instructed, you judges of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling.
See, the proper response to this one who sits in the heavens and laughs at the company of fools is to serve with fear. to tremble before Him. Fear and trembling is always becoming the saint of Christ. We are to be marked by fear and we are to be marked by trembling. Not the fear that causes us to run from Christ or to call upon the rocks and the trees to hide us from the wrath of the Lamb, but rather that fear that drives us to the foot of Christ, that drives us in obedience to the One who blesses us when we put our trust in Him. and we're to rejoice with trembling.
What does that mean? What you've heard very often from this pulpit. That trembling is that reverential awe of God in His throne room. We don't kick our feet up on the coffee table when we read this.
We don't cross our legs and grab a mocha latte, decaffeinated, and just sip and turn the pages without considering the God to whom the Scriptures point. When we read, ye who sits in the heavens shall laugh, the Lord shall hold them in derision, shall speak to them in his wrath, distress them in his deep displeasure. When he answers them with that insurmountable counterattack, you're going to do this, but I've got my king on my holy hill of Zion. That's when we need to uncross our legs and put down our tea and bow before this triune Jehovah of heaven and earth.
Because we are to rejoice with trembling. We can rejoice this admonition, this exhortation, this command, this wholesome recommendation, to put it lightly, is so that they would become believers, so that they would become saints, so that they would be those who cast off the wickedness of vanity and rebellion and embrace the rule of Messiah under his loving kingship. You see, Christ's kingship comes in two ways. He subdues the hearts of the elect, brings them to himself, blesses them, or he crushes his enemies.
He dashes them to pieces like a potter's vessel. So be wise, O kings, be instructed, you judges of the earth. Kiss the sun, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way. They are to render allegiance.
The proper rendering of allegiance is unto Jesus Christ. proper pledge of allegiance is to say, now I am wise. Now I am instructed because of your grace. Now I kiss you, Lord Jesus Christ, and I am the one who puts my trust in you because of that same grace that I might be blessed. that I might be a member of the Messiah's kingdom, not outside of that kingdom of the Son of God's love and rebellion against it. Kiss the Son, render allegiance, bend the knee, call him King of Kings and Lord of Lords, not to your shame at the end of days, but as a loving saint, bending in humility to the one who sits upon the holy hill of Zion.
Spurgeon on Kissing the Son
This is what Spurgeon says, and this ought to be a wake-up call for people who think that they can make commands to God, that they can argue for their autonomy, for their self-rule. I often hear of conversion accounts. conversion accounts where people say, oh, before I was saved, I said to God that if He doesn't save me, if He saves me, I'm going to be the greatest Christian He ever had. But if He doesn't, I'm going to be the hardest atheist and I'm going to come up to heaven and blah, blah, blah. What blasphemy.
What horror. Speaking like that. You're going to make the nasty God. You save me now or I'm going to be a rebel.
I'm going to be vile. I'm going to be wicked. That's just wretched. See these, hear these conversion accounts or the unbelievers, unbelievers.
When I, you know, when I die, I'm going to have some words to say. It just shocks me some of the things that unbelievers say against our Lord and against his Christ. But on that and on this language that you're to kiss the son, lest he be angry and you perish in the way when his wrath is kindled but a little. Listen to these words of C.H.
Spurgeon. Those who kiss not the scepter of silver shall be broken with the rod of iron. They who will not have Christ to reign over them in love shall have him rule over them in terror in the day when he puts on the garments of vengeance and dyes his vesture in the blood of his foes. Oh, acknowledge him as he is covered with his own blood, lest you have to acknowledge him when he is covered with yours.
You see, they didn't play games back in the day. They said it as it was. David spoke it like it was the reality. You shall break them with a rod of iron.
You shall dash them to pieces like a potter's vessel. Kiss the son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way when his wrath is kindled but a little. The Jesus Christ presented by Holy Scripture is not little Jesus, meek and mild, carrying sheep and riding always on a donkey into Jerusalem. a colt, the foal of a donkey. It's the Lord Jesus Christ, now ascended to the right hand of the majesty on high, now set as the installed sovereign over heaven and earth, who comes on the white horse, who treads the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.
And Spurgeon is bang on. Acknowledge him now as he is covered with his own blood. Acknowledge him as the atoning savior, as that blessed, sacrificial, substitutionary, curse-bearing redeemer. Acknowledge him as he is covered with his own blood, lest you have to acknowledge him when he is covered with yours, when he dashes you to pieces like a potter's vessel.
You know what Jesus says in that parable, and I believe it's concerning himself as judge, as the king set upon the holy hill of Zion. In Luke 19, he says that there are some servants who will not do rightly with the talents that he gives them. And then at the end of the parable, and they actually say, they say, we will not have this one to rule over us. And at the end of the parable, he says, bring those men before me and slay them before Me." Jesus Christ isn't playing games.
All honor and all allegiance and all obedience is to be rendered to the Son. Kiss Him. And why would you not want to be under the rule of this sovereign Christ? Blessed are all those who put their trust in Him.
What happens in Revelation 14? We'll read this and then we'll close in prayer in a moment. Turn there to Revelation 14. Why would you not want to be a follower of the Lamb?
Why would you not want to be a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ? Why would you not want to follow the Lamb wherever He goes, loving His commandments, loving the testimony of Jesus Christ? Revelation 14, beginning. in verse beginning in verse nine. Then an angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, if anyone worships the beast in his image and receives his mark on his forehead or on his hand, he himself shall also drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out full strength into the cup of his indignation.
He shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the lamb. And the smoke of their torment ascends forever and ever. And they have no rest day or night who worship the beast and his image and whoever receives the mark of his name. Here is the patience of the saints.
Here are those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus. Then I heard a voice from heaven saying to me, right, blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on. Yes, says the spirit that they may rest from their labors and their works follow them. Jesus Christ isn't a harsh taskmaster for those who are his saints, for those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.
And I hope you saw a little bit of Psalm 2 in there. The wicked, their ultimate ending place is the wrath of God. Their ultimate comeuppance is the wrath of God and they being dashed to pieces like potter's vessels. But those who trust in the Lord are blessed that they may rest from their labors and their works follow them.
Application
And so if you're here this morning and you're an unbeliever, stop rebelling. Stop rebelling. The ungodly shall not prosper. If you're here today and you're an unbeliever, stop rebelling.
Why would you rage and why would you plot a vain thing? Why would you continue to dangle, to tarry, to wait? Why would you continue? There's no third person that gets saved in the Bible or another type of individual that gets saved in the Bible.
You've got the wicked. You've got the righteous that are saved. And then you've got this transitory individual who maybe will be given a chance on the last day. Where does that come from?
You're either with Christ or you are against him. He who believes the Son has eternal life. He who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him. John 3.36.
So if you're here today, stop rebelling. You're raging against the Lord and against His Christ. You're trying to body check a Sherman tank. It's much worse and it's much more difficult and it's a much more insurmountable battle than trying to body check a Sherman tank.
You're railing against God, trying to break his bonds and cut away his cords. Yet he set his king on his holy hill of Zion, and he will dash you to pieces like a potter's vessel. Believe in him. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved.
And you will have the blessings of being in him. Blessed are all those who put their trust in him. And believer, find great confidence in this song. Great confidence.
While the world rages, while the enemies of the Gospel might rage, yet he who sits in the heavens shall laugh. He shall hold that company of fools in great derision. and there will be justice rendered on the last day. Well, let's pray.
Closing Prayer
God, we thank you for our time and your word this morning. We just praise you that we can consider your holy scriptures and what you set forth in them concerning our blessed Savior and redeeming King, Jesus Christ. And we would just ask that you'd be with us as we consider these things, as we mull them over in our minds, We just pray, Lord God, that we would be glorying in the fact that we can be counted as those blessed, those who have put our trust in you, not because of anything good in us or done by us, not because of our ethical purity or that we were smarter than others, but solely and alone. We owe this to your great grace, your victorious grace, Lord God.
And we would pray, Lord God, that those who do rage against you, those who are planning vain things against you, that they would kiss the sun, that they would gain wisdom by your grace, that they would gain instruction by your sovereign leading, and that they would bend the knee to our great king, and that they would sing along with us, hallelujah, what a savior. We just pray that you go with us now, God, help us not only to consider things concerning your holy word, but to bear them out in our lives, that we might conduct ourselves in a manner worthy of our great King. And it's in Christ's name that we pray, Amen.