Sunday Sermon explores Psalm 2, contrasting the wicked's futile plotting for autonomy with the righteous meditation on God's law. Citing 60 million abortion deaths as proof of man-made law's failure, the speaker asserts neutrality is a myth and true freedom exists only in theonomy. While God laughs at rebellion due to its futility, He ironically uses human plots like Jesus' crucifixion to defeat enemies. Ultimately, the message urges willing submission to Christ's lordship now rather than facing His wrath later, linking the Great Commission to the necessity of Christian nations. [Automatically generated summary]
Transcriber: CohereLabs/cohere-transcribe-03-2026, WAV2VEC2_ASR_BASE_960H, sat-12l-sm, script v26.04.01, and large-v3-turbo
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A Trembling with Gladness00:05:16
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Our text again is Psalm chapter 2.
God's word says this Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain?
The kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against his anointed, saying, Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us.
He who sits in the heavens laughs.
The Lord holds them in derision.
Then he will speak to them in his wrath and terrify them in his fury, saying, As for me, I have set my king on Zion, my holy hill.
I will tell of the decree.
The Lord said to me, You are my son.
Today I have begotten you.
Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage and the ends of the earth your possession.
You shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like the potter's vessel.
Now, therefore, O kings, be wise, be warned, O rulers 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, for his wrath is quickly kindled.
Blessed are all who take refuge in him.
This is the word of the Lord.
All right, please be seated and join me as I pray.
Father, we thank you for your word.
And Father, I pray that indeed through the preaching of your word, your people would arrive at a greater knowledge of who you are, of what you've done, and what it is that you require of us as a proper response.
God, I pray that you would equip us now by the power of your spirit with spiritual eyes to see, spiritual ears to hear, new hearts that are softened and malleable and receptive to your truth.
And Father, we ask that you would be glorified in the preaching of your word.
God, we thank you for who you are.
We thank you for what you've done.
We thank you not only for your work, of course, in redemption through the person and work of your Son, Jesus Christ, but we thank you for your work even in creation, that you are a universal creator.
Your word does not teach universal fatherhood.
You are the father of only those who have union with your Son, Christ, who have been adopted by the Holy Spirit by grace through faith.
But you are a universal creator.
And you also teach in your word universal neighborhood.
That only those who are joined with Christ are our brothers or sisters in Christ, but all people created in your image are our neighbors.
And so, Father, we recognize that your word has commandments, it has repercussions, it has precepts and expectations for the people of God, but not only that, your word has expectations and commandments, requirements for all men.
Because although you are only the Father of those who have faith in Jesus Christ, you are the Creator of all men.
And as the Creator, you maintain rights and privileges as God.
All men are commanded to love you with all their heart, their soul, and their mind.
And all men are commanded to love their neighbor as themselves.
Lord, let us not buy into the temptation to think that when it comes to our unbelieving neighbor, your law has no expectation, that your law has no commands over them.
Your law is given to all people.
Not just believers, not just your people, but all people, for all have been created by you.
You are their God.
You are the Lord of all the earth, whether we recognize that Lordship or not.
So, Father, I thank you for these men and women and children today.
I thank you for those who have recognized by grace your Lordship overall.
We thank you that Christ is not merely the head of the church, but that he is, according to Ephesians and Colossians, the head of all things.
We thank you that he is now presently seated at your right hand, Father, and that he is ruling and reigning.
And that one by one his enemies are being made a footstool for his feet.
We thank you for Jesus the Lamb who was slain for the forgiveness of sins.
But we thank you also for Jesus the Lion who reigns in glory and in power, in majesty and in triumph.
Father, we pray that we would see these things and rejoice in them, that we would be glad, that there would be a healthy fear of you, a righteous trembling, but a joyful trembling.
A trembling with gladness as we see the rule and reign of Christ in your word today.
We pray that you would bless all these things for our good and for your glory.
In Jesus' name, amen.
Christian Meditation on God's Law00:14:00
As a way of a background for our text today, Psalm chapter 2, I've written your notes the following Psalm chapter 2 fits together in an interesting way with Psalm chapter 1 that we saw last Lord's day in order to introduce the book of Psalms as a whole.
In Psalm chapter 1, if you remember, the righteous man is described as the one who meditates on God's law.
Meditates on God's law.
That is, he thinks deeply and he thinks biblically about the law of God.
In Psalm chapter 2, the wicked are the ones who meditate.
There's the same kind of language.
The wicked are the ones who are thinking deeply.
They are meditating.
The word that we find in the text is they're plotting, they're planning, they're strategizing, but it's the same Hebrew word as meditating.
They are thinking, conspiring.
However, for the wicked, what they meditate on is not the law of God and how they can surrender to God, how they can submit to God's will, how they can be obedient and pleasing to God, but rather they, the wicked, are meditating on how to cast off the law of God, on how to break apart God's bonds, God's rights, God's lordship over all men as a creator of all things.
So the righteous in Psalm chapter 1 is a meditating man.
He meditates night and day, day and night, because he delights in the law of God.
I spoke about that last week.
I said it's not just a begrudging obligation.
It's not that he simply meditates on the law of God day and night because he has to, because it's right to.
But the wonderful thing about our God is that which is right for man is also that which is good for man.
That which makes man holy is also that which makes man happy.
And so he delights.
He is the blessed man.
He's a righteous man, but he's a blessed man.
That is, he is a happy man.
He is happy in God and therefore happy in God's law, which is merely a reflection of who God is.
And because he's happy in God and therefore happy in the law of God, he cannot help.
Certainly, there are times where discipline might get him through, valleys, dry seasons.
But by and large, it is his happiness in God and his delight, therefore, in the law of God.
That causes him to meditate, to think deeply upon God's law day and night.
It's important for us to recognize when it comes again to Christian meditation, it's not the emptying of the mind and the full surrender to our feelings, but rather Christian meditation is rational.
It's filled with great mental discipline.
It is not to empty the mind of all rational thought, but rather to feast the mind and focus the mind on substance, on content, namely the Word of God.
So the Christian man is thinking deeply upon the Word of God.
And I believe that sadly, this is a lost practice in the church today.
We have plenty of Christians, those who profess Christ, who barely read the Word of God.
And then we have those who have a regular time, a regular rhythm developed over years, perhaps even decades, who they've been walking with God.
And they read the law of God.
They read the Word of God day and night.
They read God's Word regularly.
But to read God's law, to read God's Word, is not synonymous with meditating on God's Word.
We might even go further.
Some Christians would boast, perhaps, of not only their Their daily quiet time, they might call it, their daily time in the Word, reading the Word, but some Christians would even memorize the Word, which is a very biblical and wonderful practice for Christians to commit themselves to.
They would not only read the Word of God, they would memorize the Word of God.
But memorizing the Word of God is still not yet arriving at meditating upon the Word of God day and night.
Now, memorizing the Word of God is very helpful for meditation because it allows us throughout our day, without having a literal open Bible before us, to think deeply upon the Word of God which we've committed to our memory.
But there are many Christians who read the Word of God and even memorize the Word of God, but they do not meditate on the Word of God.
In short, many Christians today are not thinking Christians.
The church is absent of serious thought.
The church is a place of feeling and emotion, but not deep and profound thought about the Word of God.
To meditate on God's law day and night is to think deeply about the law of God.
Why is it holy?
Why is it righteous?
Why is it good?
Why is a man who delights in the law of God a blessed man?
What is it about the law of God that works in the world?
We live in God's world, and God has rules for his world that we live in.
And they work.
Why does it work?
Thinking deeply, meditating upon the law of God.
Why is this righteous?
And why is this wicked?
And how can I delight more in this?
And what are the implications and the practical applications?
Of God's law.
If a society were to obey God's law in this way, what would it mean?
What are those things at the level of politics, even?
The things that, not just in the home or the church, but in the civil realm that are outside of the law of God that are causing our nation to crumble.
This is to meditate upon the law of God.
It is to think deeply upon God's law.
And what we see in our text today, Psalm chapter 2, is the exact reverse.
We see the same word to plot, to think, to dwell.
To meditate, except now we see the meditation of the wicked.
And again, recognize the word meditate, it's not that mantra meditation, pagan meditation that we see in our culture today, that we've seen even seep into Christian churches today.
It's not mantra pagan meditation that seeks to empty the mind and somehow become one with the God of the universe, to be one with everything so that we might be one with the God who created everything.
See, mantra meditation in a nutshell is this it seeks.
The experience of being one with God.
Christian meditation seeks the experience of knowing God.
In Christian meditation, thinking deeply upon God's word day and night, we seek to know God.
Mantra meditation seeks in an idolatrous fashion to elevate man in such a way that he finds himself on an equal plane with God.
He becomes a contemporary of God.
But it's idolatrous, it's pagan, it's not Christian.
And notice in Psalm chapter 2, the meditation that we find is plotting the wicked plot.
It's the same kind of meditation as Christian meditation, they're simply plotting.
Meditating, thinking deeply about the wrong things.
What I mean by that is in Psalm chapter 2, the wicked, they're not practicing mantra meditation.
They're not emptying their minds.
They're not just sitting and trying to somehow work themselves into a transcendental state to become one with everything.
No, it's focused energy.
They're taking every single brain cell God's given them and working it against the God who gave them that intellectual prowess.
The wicked are thinking deeply.
The problem is that they are thinking deeply about precisely the opposite thing that the righteous are thinking about.
The righteous are thinking about the law of God, its holiness, its rightness, if you will, but also its goodness.
The righteous are meditating day and night, thinking deeply upon the law of God, how it is both right and how it is good.
How the law of God, when obeyed by man, causes him to be not only a righteous man, but also the blessed man, a holy man, and a happy man.
That's what the righteous are committing their thoughts to.
That's the type of meditation that the righteous are practicing deep thought about the law of God, its goodness and its holiness, and how submission to God's law, further surrendering to God's lordship in all things is wonderful.
That's the meditation, the profound thought of the Christian.
The meditation of the wicked is precisely, again, the opposite.
It is thinking how, in what way, they could somehow sever the bonds, the lordship, the rights of God over them.
Creator, how can we get out from underneath restraint by the law of God?
They see the law of God as wicked and perverse and harmful to their own good, as a giant hindrance to their own godless agenda.
How can we somehow remove ourselves from underneath the sovereign rule of God and the extension of His lordship and law?
How can we somehow find freedom?
From this restraint underneath the commands of God.
So the righteous, they plot, they think, they meditate on the goodness of God's law.
The wicked plot and think and meditate on the way that God's law is somehow a hindrance to their true joy and happiness and how they could somehow get away from it, how they can somehow sever the bonds of God's kingly rule over them.
And yet, we see God's response.
God is not frantic.
He's not concerned.
He's not worried.
He who sits in the heavens laughs and holds them in derision.
Going on in your notes underneath background, I've written this.
Psalm chapter 2 is structured as a dramatic presentation of sorts, and it's presented in three distinct acts.
Act number one is verses one through three, where we see that the nations have chosen to rebel against God.
They have conspired against his rule and reign.
Act chapter two, verses four through nine, we see that God remains sovereign and has a predetermined plan to judge man's rebellion.
God has a strategy, God has his own way of dealing with the rebellion, the plotting, the planning of the wicked.
Then in Acts 3, verses 10 through 12 of our text, we see the absolute necessity for every man to submit to God while there is still time.
I use the word necessity, but perhaps the better word would be this urgency.
That there is an urgency to kiss the Son, that is, the Son of God, Jesus Christ, he who rules the nations with an iron scepter, to kiss the Son lest he be angry.
For his wrath is quickly kindled.
And we'll speak about that in a moment because that seems to fly in the face of what we know about the anger of God.
That he is slow to anger.
So I'll go into more detail with that particular point in Act 3 of our text, verses 10 through 12, toward the end.
Act 1, verses 1 through 3.
I've written this in your notes.
To understand this psalm, we must realize that on one level, it particularly applies to King David.
The schemes of these rulers against the Lord and his anointed are rooted in a time in David's reign when many of the surrounding nations sought to rebel against Israel, David's kingship.
David, the Lord's anointed king over his people Israel, writes this psalm to show the folly of rebellion against God's anointed king because of the promises God had made to that king.
Thus, on one level, These first three verses refer to those rebel kings and their attempts to shake off David's rule over them.
However, Psalm chapter 2 goes far beyond David's experience.
It is ultimately fulfilled only in God's true anointed, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Thus, writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, David wrote this psalm not only about himself, but in a deeper and much more complete way about the Messiah, Jesus.
Just as these kings rebelled against King David, so all men have rebelled.
Against King Jesus.
Verses 1 through 3 of our text, let me read them once more so they're fresh in our mind.
The word says this Why do the nations rage and the people plot in vain?
The kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against his anointed, saying, Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us.
The nations surrounding David at the time are saying, How can we somehow be independent from Israel?
We don't want to pay homage to King David in Israel.
We don't want to owe them anything.
How can we cast off our obligation to this great king and this great nation?
And so, too, all men conspire, they meditate, they plot.
How can I somehow remove any sense of obligation or dependency on King Jesus?
How can I somehow become independent from God?
How can I somehow become autonomous?
True Freedom vs. Sinful Independence00:12:51
See, again, the comparison between Psalm 1 and the righteous man who meditates day and night on the law of God, and Psalm 2, the wicked who plot in vain how they can somehow get out from underneath the law of God, the comparison is striking.
Because autonomy literally means man's law.
Autonomy speaks about law, it is in direct contrast to, for instance, theonomy.
Theonomy is God's law.
Now, there are obviously in the church history and in theology, there are multiple expressions of theonomy.
Some I would disagree with.
Some I think are profound and have been dismissed by the church today, and I think mostly because of the fear of man and cowardice.
At the end of the day, theonomy simply means God's law.
And given the choice between God's law and autonomy, man's law, I choose God's law.
We see man's law, we see it legislated, we see it in action.
Man's law leads to the death of 60 million children murdered in their mother's womb in the last 48 years.
I'll take God's law.
I like what Doug Wilson says in terms of imposing morality through legislation, through law.
At the end of the day, all law is the imposing of morality.
It's either the abortion doctor and the mother imposing their morality on the child, ending in their death and murder.
Or it's imposing God's law and morality on the abortion doctor and the mother, namely your murderers and guilty for the penalty of a murder.
At the end of the day, all we ever do is impose our morality.
So to buy in, I think Christians, we cave far too quickly.
Secularism has gone unchecked in our nation for a long time, and I think part of it is because Christians have surrendered on certain points.
We've surrendered at the point of God's law, theotomy.
We've surrendered at the point of two kingdom theology.
That, well, we're just, it's just about the church, the home and the church, right?
Or the lordship of Jesus, on the lordship issue, right?
We say, well, Jesus is Lord of what?
My heart.
No, he's not.
Right?
Jesus' lordship, his rule, his reign, his dominion, it goes a lot further than your precious little heart.
He is the Lord of your heart, but he's also the Lord of all.
And Jesus is not content to be quarantined in his kingdom to the realm of your little heart.
Jesus is Lord of all.
And you'll either bless him or curse him.
You'll either love him or hate him.
But Jesus is your Lord.
Whether you admit his lordship or not.
And so, this idea that Jesus is Lord of all, that we're living in God's world, in the Father's world, and he has set his anointed one on Zion.
His holy hill.
He has elevated him to the highest place that anyone could ever be at the right hand of the Father in the ascension.
He has crowned him with many diadems, with all honor, all splendor, all majesty, and that Jesus Christ is currently ruling and reigning.
And he is not merely the head of your family or the head of the church, he is the head of all things.
The church has missed this.
And so we acquiesce, we surrender valuable ground.
We say, well, yeah, I don't want a Christian nation because I know that would be imposing.
What other nation do you want?
Neutrality is a myth.
Neutrality is a myth.
So, we can look to Christian nations and we can see what we should consider a bug rather than the feature.
We can see the Crusades.
We can look to Christian nations.
We can see weaknesses.
We can see glaring failures where things went wrong.
But we can see from God's Word how that was deterring from the law of God rather than fulfilling it.
It was a bug, not a feature.
But at some point, Christians need to call secularism to account.
Because it was not Christianity that brought about the Holocaust.
Christianity is not responsible for Mao.
Christianity is not responsible for what's currently going on in China.
Christianity is not responsible for abortion.
So, at the end of the day, whatever worldview you have, there is an allegiance.
Christ says, You're either for me or against me.
There is no neutrality.
And this is another area.
An important area that Christians have surrendered.
Oh, well, we don't want a Christian to say because that wouldn't be fair.
So let's have a neutral one.
There's no such thing.
There's no such thing.
Neutrality is a myth.
Every single person is radically influenced by their own presuppositions about the world.
What do you believe?
Politics is downstream of culture and morality.
Morality and culture ultimately is downstream from theology.
What do you believe about God?
And in light of that, what do you believe about man?
The reason why our nation has so many checks and balances in its government, which currently, right now, rulers are plotting, how can we cast off restraint?
Exactly, our text.
We see the fulfillment of it even now.
How can we cast off the Constitution?
Now, the Constitution is not a one to one ratio of the law of God, but it was written by men who acknowledged the law of God.
That's not to say that none of these men had wrong views, and some of them were perhaps even heretics.
But at the end of the day, the work that we have with civil freedom and checks and balances and free speech and all these kinds of things, a lot of it comes from ultimately John Locke.
And John Locke was influenced by guys like John Adams.
And ultimately, you trace it down and down and down.
It really works its way back to all the way to Athanasius and to Augustine, which ultimately gets all the way back to Paul, meaning the Holy Spirit, God.
That's where it comes from.
Why does freedom of speech, for instance, come from God?
Because James tells us that the law of God is the law of liberty.
See, the law of God is the only place where true freedom is found.
Freedom is not a free for all.
True freedom is not the ability to do whatever you want, true freedom is the ability to obey the law of God.
See, the wicked think they're free.
But the wicked, according to Christ, are the ones who are actually enslaved to what?
Rather than in obligation to surrender to God's law as master, the wicked are enslaved to sin.
Their lusts, their passions, the evil desires of their heart.
They think they're free, but they're not.
Because true freedom is not the ability to sin as the wicked think it is.
True freedom is the ability, the freedom to obey.
If any man is in Christ, he is a new creation.
And who the Son sets free is free indeed.
Free to obey.
Free to kiss the Son while there's still time, lest he be angry.
Free to surrender to his good and righteous and kind rule.
That's the freedom, the true freedom that the Word of God speaks of.
That's the freedom that Christians should love.
And that freedom only comes from a Christian worldview.
That freedom ultimately only comes from regenerate hearts.
But those of us who, by God's grace, are regenerate, We should take what God has done in our hearts and seek for His Lordship and His goodness to expand and advance in all the earth.
We're called to disciple the nations.
We're called to disciple not just individuals, but nations.
And I think the problem is that many of us have just not simply followed the train of logic to its final destination.
When it comes to the Great Commission, go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son.
And of the Holy Spirit, and we always forget this last part, and teaching them to obey all my commands.
So, the Great Commission that every evangelical would agree on involves not merely conversions and baptisms, but discipleship.
And the beauty of the Great Commission is that Jesus, whom all authority is His, when He gives the Great Commission, He does not leave the task of defining discipleship up to you and I.
He defines it for us.
What does it mean to make disciples?
Teaching them to obey all my commands.
Teaching them my law.
And requiring obedience to my law.
Now, think about that.
If we are to fulfill the Great Commission, it involves discipling the nations.
And what does it mean to disciple the nations?
It means teaching them to obey all the commandments of Jesus.
So, what's the practical conclusion?
Christian nations.
Christian legislation.
See, the reason why we don't like theonomy, or the reason why we don't like the idea of a Christian nation, the reason we don't like these, it's because at the end of the day, we don't believe that the Great Commission is viable.
At the end of the day, we don't think it'll work.
But what's so important for us to cross reference, to connect together two particular texts, is the Great Commission, which I've just explained.
But also, where Christ says, I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.
You guys have heard me say before, I'll say it once more the gates of hell are not an offensive weapon.
Jesus doesn't say, I will defend my church, I will protect my church, I will make sure, ensure that my church survives and the battering ram of hell will not prevail.
But that's what we think.
But that's not what Jesus said.
So we think that the church is on the ropes, and Jesus has promised that we'll be able to go all 10 rounds and make the bell without ultimately going unconscious and being humiliated in defeat.
But at the end of the day, we're still going to lose.
We're just going to be able to barely stand to the end of the match.
But that's not what Jesus says.
No, Jesus says, not I will protect my church or salvage my church or Or ensure its survival, and the battering rams of hell will not prevail against it.
Rather, it's the very reverse language.
Jesus says, I will build, advance, expand my church.
The church is on the offense, and the defense, the gates of hell, will not be able to stand up.
Hell can't make all 10 rounds because Jesus is ultimately the boxer in the ring, and the church is his right and left arm.
The church is the battering ram being used by Christ Jesus, the true champion, the true boxer, the true warrior, and hell won't be able to last.
Hell ultimately will go down for the count.
So, if we believe that Jesus will build his church, it will advance, and nothing, even the power of hell, no scheme of man, no power of hell, will be able to ultimately resist the expansion, advancement, and building of Christ's church.
And then we take that and we simply ask the question how does Christ build his church?
and cross reference over to the Great Commission.
The Folly of Man's Rebellion00:06:33
Go and disciple the nations by baptizing them into the name of the triune God and teaching them about my law and their obligation of obedience to my law.
Then, what's the logical?
Certainly, it's biblical, and we could spend lots of time on that, but merely logical conclusion.
Christian nations, Christian legislation, Christian laws.
And it's not crazy.
We used to have the Ten Commandments.
I believe we still do.
On the courthouse.
Has that been removed?
Anyone know?
It's still there.
Ten Commandments on the courthouse.
Why?
Because it's God's law or man's law.
Theonomy, which needs to be carefully defined, you can get a little bit crazy with it, but theonomy or autonomy.
And my point, all the way back to our text in the first three verses, is this autonomy, man's law, the way we often use the word autonomy, and it's a correct use of the word, is talking about independence.
Individualism.
I'm autonomous.
Meaning what?
I'm not dependent on anyone and I'm not underneath the restraints or the commands or the rule of anyone.
See, that's what man's law is all about autonomy.
Man's law.
It's all about independence.
It's all about plotting, meditating, thinking, conspiring.
How can I cast off the bonds of God?
So, the righteous man, Psalm chapter 1.
He meditates day and night.
He doesn't just read the word.
He doesn't just memorize the word, but he meditates.
He thinks on the law of God, its rightness and its goodness.
He is the righteous man, but also the happy man, the blessed man.
And he is thinking, how can I further submit myself, commit myself to God's good rule?
The wicked man, conversely, meditates.
He is thinking deeply about God, about God's law, and how he can somehow get out from underneath it, how he can somehow cut the bonds, sever the cords.
Somehow find autonomy.
Man's law, man's independence.
So, how does God respond?
Verses 4 through 9 of our text, Act 2, I've written this in your notes.
God has a calm assurance in the midst of man's rebellion.
Verse 4 of our text reveals that God does not even bother to get up from his throne.
He who sits in the heavens laughs, and the Lord holds them in derision.
This certainty does not mean that God finds man's rebellion and its devastating results to be comical.
The laughter of God here does not reflect God taking delight or pleasure in man's rebellion.
For Ezekiel chapter 33, verse 11 says, God takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked, much less his wicked deeds, but not even the death of the wicked, which is what he deserves, but rather that the wicked should turn from his way and live.
God's laughter in our text is not meant to reflect God's taking pleasure in man's rebellion, but rather it's meant to reflect the laughter of God.
The sheer folly and futility of man's rebellion.
It's like a father telling his two year old son, No, you cannot have a fourth cookie.
You only got three because mom was gone.
And I'm a bit of a sucker.
But we have to draw the line somewhere.
There's got to be some law and order in this house.
And as for me and my house, we shall have no more than three cookies.
A fourth cookie is just.
It's off limits.
It's out of the question.
And suppose, imagine with me that that toddler's response is just this unsanctified rebellion.
And it begins to hit at the father's knees because they only come up about two feet high.
Now, the father might find himself chuckling a bit.
But if he's a good father, hopefully, if he's a good father, this wouldn't even take place, right?
The idea of a child hitting their parent when they tell them no.
Hopefully, there's been already, even in the first two years of that child's life, enough discipline to where this wouldn't even happen.
But let's say it does.
Let's say for some reason it's a one off event.
It's never happened before.
The father has been faithful to discipline the child, and somehow the child just had a crazy idea.
Or those three cookies have just really just drawn out the full depths of total depravity in that child's heart.
One way or the other, let's imagine the child is hitting the father's knees, striking and punching and blowing at the father's knees, and the father chuckles.
If it's a sanctified, holy Christian father, he is not relishing or taking pleasure in the rebellion of the child.
Laughing with a sense of joy.
I love that my child, when being told no by one of the chief earthly authorities in this child's life, instinctively responds with physical aggression.
I love that.
And it just makes me laugh.
I just take so much pleasure in my child's rebellion.
No.
No, the laughter of the father in that moment would reflect not taking pleasure in the child's rebellion, but rather it would reflect the sheer futility of the child's attempt to physically overpower the father and get their way.
That's what it reflects.
And so, too, he who sits in the heavens laughs.
This laughter is a holy laughter, not a wicked laughter, God forbid, that would relish in pleasure at the wicked, their deeds.
But rather, it merely reflects the futility and the folly of the wicked attempting in any way to somehow get the upper hand against God Almighty.
God's laughter in our text is not meant to reflect taking pleasure in man's rebellion, but rather the absolute folly and futility of man's rebellion.
Plotting to Kill the Lord of Glory00:14:40
God removes kings and establishes kings.
Daniel 2, verse 21.
The mighty Nebuchadnezzar, even the greatest ruler on earth in his day, grew proud and attributed his greatness to himself.
But God humbled him by afflicting his mind with insanity, so that he lived in the fields and ate grass like a beast until he learned, and this is what Nebuchadnezzar says when he's finally restored to his right state of mind.
The Most High is a ruler over the realm of mankind and bestows it on whomever he wishes.
Daniel 4, verse 25.
See, God not only has a calm assurance in the midst of man's rebellion, but he also has, our chapter tells us, A predetermined plan for dealing with man's rebellion, which we see in verses 7 through 9.
See, God's predetermined plan for dealing with man's rebellion is ultimately found in the person and work of Jesus Christ.
God sent his Son into the world to pay the penalty for man's rebellion, according to John 3 16, Galatians chapter 4, verse 4.
And Jesus died according to the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God at the hands of godless, wicked men.
Acts chapter 2, verse 23.
Acts chapter 4, verse 27 through 28.
And God raised this Jesus up from the dead, and he ascended to heaven, where he is now waiting to return.
Jesus Christ will return bodily to this earth in power and glory to rescue all his people and to crush all his opposition.
John describes this vision of the Lord Jesus in that great day in Revelation chapter 19, verse 15 through 16, which says this And from his mouth comes a sharp sword.
So that with it he may smite the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron.
And he treads the winepress 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.
Jesus is the true anointed.
God has set him up on his holy mountain.
He rules, he reigns, and he who came as the Lamb.
To die will return as the lion to conquer.
And what I want you to see, we don't have enough time, I've spent too much time on other things, but I want you to see very briefly God, He's sitting in the heavens.
He has a calm demeanor, a calm posture.
He's not concerned, He's not threatened.
As man conspires on earth, the kings and counselors of the world joining forces, thinking about how they can somehow gain autonomy, man's.
Law and man's independence from God's universal creatorship and his holy law and rule.
As all this is happening, God is at peace with himself.
He is not concerned, but not only does he possess this calm posture to where he sits in heaven and laughs at man's futility, but he has a predetermined plan for dealing with it.
And notice this the way that God Almighty deals with his opposition, conspiring to overcome him.
Conspiring to gain the upper hand.
The precise way that God ultimately deals with the plots of the wicked against him is by using the wicked themselves as key players in their own destruction.
Acts chapter 2 and Acts chapter 4, we see that God is the one who predestined that Jesus would die at the hands of wicked men.
These men attempting ultimately to cast off.
The rule of God are actually putting in the final nail into their own coffin.
Even Satan, not just men of this earth, but principalities, powers, cosmic, spiritual.
Satan himself, thinking that he somehow had gained the upper hand at the death of Jesus, relishing in the thought that he had somehow won, not realizing that he actually sealed his own doom.
And demise.
So it's not only that God has a calm disposition, and it's not only that God possesses a predetermined plan for dealing with man's rebellion, but God, in his infinite wisdom, uses his own opposition to defeat themselves.
That's our God.
That's why he sits in the heavens and laughs.
He doesn't bother to get up to squash his opposition because he's so infinitely wise, he is predetermined that his opposition will squash itself.
That they actually will be the ones who fulfill God's ultimate plan in the person and work of Jesus Christ.
And then Christ himself will return in glory, King of kings and Lord of lords.
Act 3, verses 10 through 12.
I've written this in your notes.
It is not just the proud kings of David's day who have rebelled against the Lord and his anointed.
All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.
Romans 3, verse 23 says, We have all in our own way fulfilled verse 3 of our text.
We have all said towards God, let us tear his fetters apart and cast away his cords from us.
The only time in all of history where God took on flesh and made himself vulnerable, where we could actually touch him.
Humanity seized as an opportunity to kill the Lord of glory.
By the way, that Jesus is often described in churches today, you would think that everyone would welcome this Messiah who came to save us from our sins.
However, the issue is not salvation, the issue is lordship.
The Lord's anointed is not merely the lamb who saves, but the lion who will reign, if not by our own willful submission now, then by our forced submission when he returns.
Jesus does not live to serve our will, we were created to serve his will.
And one day every knee shall bow, either by joyful submission or by force.
The late great Puritan Matthew Henry says it like this Those who will not bow shall break.
See, the one time that Jesus really did come to earth, the second member of the Trinity, the Son of God, God incarnate, God in the flesh, the one time that God, he who sits in the heavens, actually came down to earth and did make himself vulnerable, did make himself accessible, humanity seized that opportunity to kill him,
to crucify the Lord of glory.
See, the reality of our sin, of humanity's sin, is that at the end of the day, we don't want in our own fallen nature, apart from the grace of God, apart from being made a new creation in Christ Jesus by grace through faith in Him, apart from that, we don't desire God.
We're not looking, God, if you were just closer to me, Emmanuel, God with us, if you were just closer, more accessible, I would cherish you.
No, there is a time in history where God made Himself close and accessible.
And humanity used it to drive nails through his hands and feet.
Humanity used it as a moment to praise him, but sarcastically, by putting a crown of thorns on his head, dripping blood down his face.
See, if you doubt the sinfulness of man, look to the cross.
There we see the one opportunity for man to truly cherish God.
And instead, we crucify the Lord of glory.
But if you doubt the love of God for man in his sin, look to the cross.
See, we see that man was so sinful that Jesus had to die, but we also see that you and I, God's elect, were so loved that Jesus was willing to die.
The Father, who loved the world, so loved the world, sent his Son.
To die.
We see the sinfulness of man.
We see the justice of God, what he requires in order to atone for sin, that the wages of sin is death.
But we also see the love of God, the sinfulness of man, the justice and holiness of God, but also the mercy, the love, and kindness of God, all in the cross.
That's who man is, apart from saving grace.
Not indifferent toward God.
But Romans 8 says the mind of the sinful man is hostile toward God.
It is plotting, like our text today, how we can overcome God, how we can cast off his rule, how we ultimately, if we could, if he did step down off his throne again and make himself vulnerable, how we could kill him.
That's the mind of man apart from the saving grace of God.
That's the heart of man apart from the saving grace of God.
Plotting, meditating how to beat him.
To crush him, to destroy him, and ultimately to kill him.
Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man one might possibly dare to die.
But God demonstrates his love for us in this while we were yet sinners, not cute sinners, vile, not indifferent or uninterested in God, but hostile, at war with him in our hearts and minds.
Contemplating and plotting in vain to destroy him if we ever had the chance.
But at that time, God sent his son to die for us because he loves all his people.
The urgency of submitting to Christ is expressed in verse 12 of our text by the phrase, his wrath is quickly kindled.
The first time Jesus came to earth, he came in mercy in order to save.
The second time he comes to earth, he will come in wrath in order to judge.
However, even if his coming is delayed, we have no guarantee that we will be permitted by God to draw another breath.
If you do not submit to Jesus Christ before you die, you will face the wrath of his judgment for eternity, according to Hebrews 9, verse 27.
The last line of Psalm 2, our text today, is God's gracious invitation.
It says this Blessed are all who take refuge.
Him.
As we see the chaos in our world, we can be truly happy and blessed by taking refuge in our God.
The early church took refuge in God by praying, Psalm chapter 2, as they faced immense persecution.
In our troubled times, when it looks as if the enemy might be winning, we can do the same.
In conclusion, in short, what I would say is this there are two options.
One works, it's viable.
The other is futile.
It does not work.
It possesses no assurance and no hope for deliverance.
The two options are this you can attempt to hide from the Son, but He will find you and He will break you and crush you with an iron rod.
You can attempt to hide from the Son.
Revelation speaks that these same kings of the earth who conspired against God.
The Holy One, the Anointed One that we see in Psalm chapter 2 are the same people who will run into the caves and caverns of the mountains to hide from the Lord of glory when He returns and cry out for the very rocks to fall on them.
But there will be no place to run, no place to hide.
So your two options are this you can try to hide from the Son, or, as the final verse of our text says, you can hide in the Son.
The cleft in the rock, the refuge, the strong tower, the robes of righteousness that cover our iniquity and our sin.
You can kiss the Son while there's still time.
His wrath is quickly kindled.
And yet at the same time, His forgiveness endures forever.
Kiss the Son.
Don't hide from Jesus.
With the sin in your heart.
Don't hide from Jesus.
Run to and hide in Jesus.
He's our hiding place, He's our refuge.
The only deliverer from the Son is the Son.
And today, by God's grace, we have been given the opportunity to bow by grace.
Rather than break under his power on that final day.
Growing in Faith and Submission00:02:30
So let's worship him.
Let me pray.
Father, we thank you for your word.
We thank you for Jesus, the lamb who died to take away the sin of the world.
And we also thank you that this Jesus is the lion who rules and reigns and has promised to return again.
Father, we pray for fresh grace in our lives.
To submit further and further to his lordship now with willing hearts, not begrudgingly, not out of mere joyless obligation, but that there would be in our hearts a growing glad submission as we meditate more and more on your law, the rightness of your law, but the goodness of your law.
That what produces holiness also produces happiness.
In our hearts and minds and lives.
Father, help us to see your love for us in Jesus.
Help us to see your wisdom, that we live in your world.
You know what works.
You know what leads towards life and prosperity and what ultimately only leads to death.
Help us to trust you.
For any of us who doubt whether or not you're really good, whether or not you're just trying to force us to submit for your own benefit or whether or not you're really good toward us, you've provided all the evidence we need.
You love the world so much, you sent your only Son to die for us at our worst.
What more proof of your goodness and kindness could we possibly require?
Forgive us, Lord, for our unbelief.
Help us, Lord, to grow in faith.
And we thank you that we have confidence that that has happened even today.
For faith comes by hearing, and hearing.
By the word of God.
Thanks so much for listening.
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