I'd like for us this evening to look in the Psalms chapter two. Psalm chapter two. You know, there's a lot of deep concern in the world today, even in the hearts of many of God's people, as to just how everything's gonna turn out. As believers, we should say confidently, I know how it's going to turn out. I've read the book. I know, I know what's going to happen. I'm not in the dark. You see, those that are in the world and don't know the Lord and don't believe the word and don't believe that God is in control, and they sometime are deeply concerned. Scripture says, be anxious for nothing. Be anxious for nothing. As God's people, we lift our faces up to heaven, and we cry out to God in our prayers, and and we ask for answers from the word to encourage our heart, and that's what I find in Psalm two. I was thinking, perhaps I would continue with that thought about the gifts. Uh, we took another session of, along that line, uh, Saturday morning, but I decided, uh, in view of what we looked at this morning, and thinking about, uh, what is given in the Word of God regarding, regarding the person of the Lord Jesus and his experience in dying upon the cross, sometimes we need to look forward in time and think about how will all this end. There's a lot of anxiety in the world today. God hath not given to us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and a sound mind. Are you fearful about what's going to happen tomorrow? There's so many distressing things, and it's hard to sometimes be completely liberated from having anxious thoughts. Sometimes we say, well, I'm not worrying, I'm not anxious, I'm just deeply concerned. I, I like to think that's, uh, the way it is, but in Psalm two, the psalmist raises, uh, two questions, and he gives, uh, an answer. He's in control of the situation. The psalmist knows his faith and trust are in God. Can't help but have a sense of sadness for those in the world that are lost. Man, I say that so often, I think that so often when I'm talking with someone, I meet someone, and, and, uh, you try to witness for the Lord and speak and give a word of, uh, of encouragement in the gospel, and you, while you're looking right into their faces, you know they don't know what you're talking about. Oh, they are maybe quiet, respectful, and listen, but they really don't know, and they're worrying, and they are concerned about what's going on in the world. Let's read, uh, Psalm two. It's just twelve verses, and it is a wonderful message. Why do the heathen rage and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel and course, counsel together against the Lord and against his anointed, saying, let us break their bands asunder and cast away their cords, cords from us. He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh. The Lord shall have them in derision. Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath and vex them in his sore displeasure. Yet I have set my king upon my holy hill of Zion. I will declare the decree the Lord has said unto me. Thou art my son. This day have I begotten thee. Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. Thou shall break them with a rod of iron. Thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel. Be wise now, therefore, o ye kings. Be instructed, ye judges of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in him. And shall we just bow again in a word of prayer? Our gracious Heavenly Father, we thank thee for this Lord's day and for the time that we have spent together in this place. We have assembled to the person of our Lord Jesus Christ. We have rejoiced in our souls today, as we had many wonderful, precious thoughts of him, our Savior. We have lifted our hearts and voices up to thee in prayer for those that are less fortunate than we are. There are many that are hurting. And we live in a world, Lord, that groans under the curse. That curse that fell upon this scene when sin entered the scene. Oh, our God, one day we will live in a place where sin has no place. Sin cannot enter the heavenly realms. We're so thankful that we shall one day be with Him, and we'll be like Him, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Bless, we pray thee, our thoughts tonight, given to us from the word of God, the psalmist. Grant, we pray thee, that these words shall sink into our own souls and hearts, and they will be comforting to us, and they will provide us with all that we need in a world today that indeed is suffering and reeking and rolling under the oppressive weight of the sin that seems to be dominating our whole creation. Oh, our God, have mercy in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen. This part of, uh, Psalm, part of Psalm, uh, two is quoted in Acts chapter four. You remember the account of Peter in the temple, the healing of the lame man. And opposition, uh, came right on the heels of all of the success that they were having, uh, in healing and bringing blessing to people. They were opposed by, some people say, the religious crowd. You know, I always kind of think that these people were well-meaning in what they did, Pharisees and Sadducees and all the others. You know, our Lord said, uh, we read that this morning, forgive them, Lord, they don't know what they're doing. Sometimes I feel such a sense of sadness because I do feel that way. Oh, they don't know what they're doing. They don't know what they're saying. And when you think about this, uh, Peter and those early disciples, they were up against a lot of opposition, came early on. And one of the quotations out of this psalm, uh, uh, it, it, uh, is really, uh, an answer to the questions that the psalmist has raised. But it reminds us that indeed God, he will be exalted, and he will be victorious over all of the opposition that has ever been mounted against him and his anointed. You know, that scene this morning, if you view what happened on the cross, that crowd assembled there, I feature that many of them said, well, that's the end of Jesus. We won't have to be bothered with him anymore, causing all these uproars and things that were happening that were perhaps unsettling to their way of life. We're through with him. We know better, don't we? We know because we've read the book. So the psalmist, in these questions that he sets before us, and they need to be asked, and they need to be asked, and they need to be answered because they provide us with enlightenment. And, uh, why do the heathen rage? Well, I can tell you right away, he's not talking about some of those headhunters out in Papua New Guinea. His reference to the heathen are all of this world that is in opposition to God. Oh, the voices that are raised today in opposition to God. We heard, uh, someone say recently, their numbers seem to be mounting more and more. The enemy and his opposition to anything that relates to our God and the person of his beloved son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Opposition is mounting. There seems to be a boldness, an arrogance about, uh, uh, what's happening in the world today. They seem to be so confident. I'd like to say, you ain't fooling me, buddy. I know you're running scared. You know, you can't have any peace in your soul without God. There's always unrest there. The wicked are like the troubled sea. Man, that old ocean, when it's storming and those waves are mounting. I tell you, it's awesome. And that kind of turmoil, I sense it happening in the souls and minds of men and women today. No, they don't have any peace. Oh, they may boast, they may be saying things and acting so confident that they have everything under control. We don't need God. We are God. Man is God. So says the humanist. We don't need God. I'll tell you, one day there's going to be a rude awakening. When those poor souls open their eyes in eternity, and it might be for the first time, oh, I do need God. It's too late. I do need God, but it's too late. So the question that is raised, why do the heathen rage? I think this is a reference to the nations of the world and what you see in the world today, including the good old US of A. There's so much here. It says, why do the people imagine a vain thing? You know, vanity, that word in itself, it speaks of emptiness. It's emptiness. Everything is so shallow. There's so much confusion. Just can't seem to get it together. That's the spirit of the world in which we live today. You know, we're looking for men that have answers. We're looking for women that have answers to some of these problems. I, I wouldn't want to be a politician. If someone said, would you like to be president? Would you like to take the rest of President Bush's time in office and run things for him? He needs a rest. He's going back to Texas. How would, how would you like that? As a man, oh man, put me in jail, but no, I don't want that job. I do not want our president's job. And I tell you, I don't think we are, are as dedicated as we should be, in that we pray for those that are in authority over us. I tell you, they have awesome responsibility. Think about it, we as a nation feel like we have a leader that is in touch with our God. We feel like that he understands what we understand, and that that's comforting. It's comforting. But there's so many others. Yeah, they don't know God. They don't know God. And in all of the nations that we're dealing with around the world, there are a lot of people that don't know God, they don't know our God. And everything that's being tried is so empty, it's so vain, there's so much confusion. You know, Proverbs one seven says that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. The beginning of wisdom. But it follows with this, and also often we don't u- we don't mention this. It says, fools despise wisdom and instruction. This may sound simplistic, but we have the answer. You see, what the world needs is the Lord. They need our God, they need his son. Thou shall keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee. If it wasn't for the Lord, if it wasn't for the Lord and his provision for you and me in giving some stability and peace to our souls. No telling where we would be tonight. I don't think I would be as at peace within myself. I know I wouldn't if I didn't know the Lord. But to know the Lord and to be confident that he is in charge, he has never lost control over what he created. Sovereignly, God is God of all. There's a danger, uh, that we might get to the point we feel, well, I can't do anything about it. But we can do something about it, can't we? We can rescue the perishing. I thought about that as I was reading this. Oh yes, there is something I can do. You know, we meet here on Wednesday evening, and we have, sometime Mark has had a list of people here that their names are recorded there, and there are many others. We have family members, and we know they're not saved. And we know that they're experiencing things in their mind and in their soul is tormenting them. We have the answer. And brother and sister, if you haven't given to those you love the answer to the problem, make a determined effort that I'm going to tell them come what may. I know they've resisted. I know they said, I don't want to hear anything about it anymore. Don't talk to me about trusting Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. May be all right for you, but it's not right for me. I have my religion. I'm satisfied with what I believe. That air of confidence, but I don't believe that for a moment. Because as long as the Spirit of God is in this world, and the Word of God is given, the gospel is presented, men and women are going to be convicted in their souls of sin and righteousness and judgment. And when you are aware of your condition before God as a poor sinner, you cannot be at peace, and thank God for it. If you recall your own conversion experience, be you a young person or an old person. Lady told me this morning she heard about hell, and that prompted her to want to get saved. It prompted me to want to be saved too, because I didn't want to go to hell. I wanted to have some assurance that life was going to be better later on, and become a possessor of eternal life, and know you're going to spend eternity with God. That's comforting. Oh yes, don't let us be fooled. The danger that God's people will say there's nothing we can do about it. Nothing we can do about it. Oh, we can do something about it. We can proclaim the word of God in truth, in truth. The wonderful message of the gospel, Paul says it's the power of God unto salvation for everyone that believes it, everyone that believes it. We dare not. It's still the answer to man's greatest problem. Oh, I know how active and powerful the God of this world is. Man, I don't, I don't, I don't ever lose sight of that. He's powerful. But greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world. And I know that the god of this world blinds the minds of those that will not believe, lest the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine into their hearts. But let's be those that get the word out. We were talking about gifts. I don't consider myself an evangelist. Perhaps many of you do not consider yourself an evangelist. You don't have that gift. But the Apostle Paul says you can do the work of an evangelist. You can go tell someone how to be saved. And when you do, and that person says yes, you, you are there the very moment that the light breaks in on their soul. Man, that is a wonderful experience to see the darkness dispelled and light comes in. No longer in that darkness, no longer in that state of mind and soul, so fearful of what lies ahead. Now I know the one that I am b- I believed in. I'm persuaded that he's able to keep that which I've committed unto him against that day. We've got that answer. But the psalmist says, kings and rulers. The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against his anointed. I don't know if you noticed, but in this second Psalm and in the eighth Psalm, that word Lord is capitalized, capital L, capital O, capital R, capital D. And I didn't know for a long time why it was that way. But the men and people that know language, know the Hebrew, would tell you that, uh, that means that to an Israelite, when he sees that word and there's generated in his mind that thought of Jehovah, Yahweh, his whole concept of how great and wonderful and majestic and powerful God is. He whispers that word. He's even reluctant to write that word on a piece of parchment or paper. Oh, that name that is above every name. That name that we read about this morning, at the name of Jesus. Oh, knees will bow, tongues will confess that he is Lord. He is God. Man, that just makes me feel good all over. Lord, they didn't treat you too good down here. But you now know now on the throne, you appear in all of your power and greatness. The whole world bows in submission to the authority of the one that was rejected. Kings and rulers, they counsel together. You know, the psalmist, he answers his own questions regarding why these things are what they are. He says, the saying, this is the saying regarding kings and rulers. It's amazing how much hostility there is. Sometimes it just seems unreal that a person that is so intelligent, a person that seems to know so much about so many things, but they don't know the Lord. Now, you know, that tells you something. Unless God moves, unless God in his plans and purposes reaches out and seeks to touch your heart, sensitize you to your need of a savior. You won't ever be touched. That's why sovereignly the Spirit of God must be a part of this business of being born again. Oh, we talk about this so frequently, a spiritual birth, a new birth, being born again. And sometimes people say, I'm a born again believer. Well, there ain't no other kind. Born again into the family of God, new creatures in Christ Jesus. That's what can take place. But this hostility that's in the world, it is, it boggles your mind to think, man, how could you be resisting? Man, how could you be so opposed to someone that wants to bless you and bring you out into the light? Rebellion. Rebellion. There's a warning to men. Don't ever confuse God with anyone else that you've ever known. You ne- you've never known anyone like God. We've never known anyone like God. We know a lot of people. We know a lot of things about other people. We size them up. We make some judgment about them. What do you think about God? He is sovereign. He is over all. He has created all. The world laughs at that. Just a moment, we're going to find out that God laughs sometimes. The world is laughing. They're scoffing. They think believers, that religious crowd that has trusted Christ, and they're talking about him coming again, and they're talking about being with him forever. We're a bunch of fools. We're just a bunch of fools. We don't know what it's all about. Well, they're trying to play God. They're saying, in a sense, we know more than you know. We know more than that God that you're trusting in. Oh no. Oh no. Have mercy. Well, verse three says, as we read this passage, and I thought about this, let us break their bonds in pieces and cast away their cords from us. You know, more and more as you view what appears before you upon a TV screen, and things that are being publicized in magazines and papers and so forth. You know, man has pretty much broken s- uh, the the rule of God as it applies to man so completely. Not just a little defiled, but totally defiled. The things that are so embarrassing that people do and promote. I don't know, I shake my head. I said, I can't believe that they think that's right. You know, with all that you have in the Word of God recorded, and I think again, if you want to just look for a moment and think about why it is that they dislike having the Ten Commandments around. It's an ethical standard. It is, it's true, and it is perfect. It's God's law. It is given in order to provide with man with a standard. It was given to us as a reminder, like looking into a mirror, of how imperfect we are. But the world today resents that and rejects that. I'm not gonna bow to any of that foolishness. Everything's relevant. Situation, ethics. If it feels good, do it and enjoy it. That's the spirit of the world. Doesn't it seem strange? We're gonna break through every barrier that God has ever erected to stop us in our wild pursuit of finding... What? What are they looking for? They want to be happy. They want to be happy. Well, the first Psalm says, blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly. You want to be happy? You better go after the Lord. And you better fill your mind, heart, and soul with what God has for you to satisfy that part of us that desires to be satisfied and can't be satisfied with anything in this world. Isn't it sad? The world's trying to satisfy itself through, through the pursuit of so many things. God has put up a barrier. Their bonds, their cords, we're going to break all of them. They're going to have any restraint placed on us. The other part about it is that so many people are having success in dealing with people that are in authority over it and convincing them that all these things are okay, and it's a violation of our rights to say that I can't do that, that that's not right. That would be a violation of God's law. God's law, we're not going by God's law. We have our own laws. We're a law unto ourselves. God's laws, you have them, we don't want them. And the psalmist, of course, lets it be known that the one who sits in the heavens shall laugh. I don't think this is some kind of hira- hilarious laughter over the sad circumstances in which man is found today. Our God that looks down from heaven and surveys all that is happening upon the face of the earth. I think there's a sense of sadness and grief when he sees little children being abused, when he sees all of the things that are happening. Hunger, death from starvation when there's plenty everywhere, disease creeping in, disease that, uh, has come about because of a violation of what God has said, don't do that. No, God doesn't look down and laugh at those things. But I do believe that God, he's laughing and holding them in derision, all because they're in violation of everything that he has set in place. And most of all, he has put right in their pathway the person of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Holy Son of God. That should be the thing that should arrest the attention of every man when he sees the Lord's anointed, he sees the one that God sent into the world, who came to seek and to save that which was lost. That should be so arresting, that should just bring a man down to his knees, but so often it doesn't. And God looks at all those circumstances, and he looks at the heathen, he looks at world leaders today that are taking counsel against the Lord and his anointed, and seeing all of those that want to cast aside all restraint, and he lies. He lies. And he shows his deep displeasure. Yet we read, I have set my king on my holy hill of Zion. Ultimately, God will prevail. I'm confident of that. What my God has said, he will fulfill. Those are not empty words. I will come again. I will receive you unto myself, that where I am, there you may be also. I want you with me. You that have trusted me. You that have accepted as a gift from God, eternal life. And now you're in that position of being blessed and happy in the Lord. I'm coming again. I'm going to take you out of this world thing, and you will be with me forever. Well, verses seven and 9, our risen Lord speaks with authority. We've had to pause and reflect upon so many of these things. Man rages on the earth, he rejects God. His anointed sits enthroned in heaven, confidently in control. You know, I said this morning, based upon that verse that we have in John seventeen, I pray for my own, I'm not praying for those that are upon the face of the earth. And I said that indeed I believe, when we think about what has been done to bridge the gap between a holy, righteous God and poor sinners? Everything that needs to be done, it's a wide open highway into the presence of God. I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes unto the Father but by me. It's that wonderful way that God has provided for men to escape his judgment and his wrath. And as we reflect upon that and we think about that, that is indeed a pause worthy of reflecting upon. I believe my God is in control. I believe that he is indeed right at the threshold. More and more, many of us feel that way. Get up in the morning thinking it might be today, might be today. Can you think of anything you've got planned that you wouldn't want to rather see the Lord come than to go on that vacation, or whatever it is that you delight in doing? No, there's absolutely nothing I can think of at the moment. Nothing. I'd like to see him face to face. I'd like to hear the shout. Man, that's real. Have you ever thought about how it's gonna sound? The shout! Come up! Come up. That's what John heard in that fourth chapter of Revelation. Come up. I got something I want to show you. I'm going to enlighten you. Brother, we've been enlightened. I know the end of the story. And people say, oh, I'm frightened, I'm scared of what's going to happen. I know what's going to happen. Not all of it is very pleasant, but whatever happens, God is in control. And I know that ultimately we will be with him. Be wise now, is what the psalmist said. Said, be wise, O kings. Be instructed, you judges of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear, with deep respect and reverence in your soul, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the sun, 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. Who is on the Lord's side? Well, I don't know who all is on the Lord's side, but I know the Lord's on my side. And I'm glad he is, and I'm glad he's done a work of grace in my heart, and I'm so thankful he brought me to conviction of my sin. And we were talking here this morning. When you live to be thirty years old and you haven't trusted the Lord and you're a wild rebel, ain't no telling what you might do. And you have a sense of shame deep within your soul that you were ever, ever controlled and dominated by the god of this world. I hate it. That I would let him have control of my life. That's a brief part of my life. I'm old enough now I can look back and say, well, I've lived longer on the Lord's side than I ever did for the devil. Satan, you haven't had that part in control of my life in which I have found peace with God. It's wonderful. Blessed are those that do not walk in the counsel of the ungodly or sit in the seat of the scorner. We thank thee and praise thee tonight, our blessed God, for your love and mercy to us. And we're so thankful that in the word of God we have a complete account of your dealings with the children of men. What you have created, you have planned and purposed, that all would ultimately be for your glory and honor. Not just those you have saved by your grace, but even those that have suffered the judgment of the wrath of God and will spend eternity separated from thee, you will be glorified in all that you do. And thank you, Lord Jesus, for being our Savior. In your holy name we pray. Amen.