Psalm 2:1-12; Rebellion or Refuge

Well, turn with me to Psalm chapter 2.

Psalms 2 · chapter mention

Psalm chapter 2, this is a message that the Lord

Psalms 2 · chapter mention

has blessed upon me and allowed me to use this

scripture for God to speak through me and that's all

that I want you to hear. Somebody came in earlier

and said to And it was like, I don't think

I remember you.

Don't remember me at all. Remember the message. All right.

There's, there's nothing memorable about me at all, except I'm

a flawed, uh, a wretch that the Lord saved and

he uses me in these opportunities to come and speak

to you. Just remember this message in Psalm chapter two

and the title of this message today, if you are

taking notes and Is rebellion or refuge? I want you

to be thinking about that through this message. Rebellion or refuge?

When we close out the message here in a little bit,

we're going to be talking about that. And it's a

choice that people make. Am I going to rebel or

am I going to take refuge? Now give me a

few minutes to get this message.

Off the ground, all right?

I'm going to spend a couple of minutes taxiing out here,

if you will. There's a little bit behind the psalm

that we need to know. This is what we call

a messianic psalm, okay? Okay? Now, a messianic psalm means

that there's a dual meaning behind it. And I love them.

And I love studying these psalms because when you... I

don't think we can get to the scripture today without

understanding this messianic psalm and what a messianic psalm is.

And I'm not going to use... I can't use big

words because I don't understand them.

So I'm going to explain it to me. And there's

a line somewhere that I picked up. Talk to me

like I'm a toddler. Sometimes I feel like I need

those things. I need somebody to explain to me so

you use the term Messianic Psalm and I might sound smart.

I'm not the dullest bulb in the chandelier, but I

ain't the brightest one either. I'm somewhere in there. Just

explain it to me. A Messianic Psalm is simply this.

It talks about an historical anointed king, meaning David, okay?

And then it also talks about a perfect and final

anointed one, Jesus Christ.

That's a messianic psalm. It talks about David as king

and it talks about Christ as king.

And when you read this in a moment, we read

this text together, you're going to see the beauty of

this come through and you're going to see where the

Old Testament, much of the Old Testament, it just breathes

Jesus Christ the.

Whole time we read it. So when Psalm 2 says

the Lord's anointed, it refers.

historically to David, prophetically and ultimately to Jesus Christ the Messiah.

This is why the New Testament confidently applies Psalm 2

to Jesus without denying its original historical context, meaning David. David,

as God's anointed king, foreshadowed the greater king who would

come from his line and reign forever. God determined it.

He anointed it.

It was going to happen.

David did a whole lot to not, it could have

really messed things up, but God was like, you're my

anointed king. Nothing you can do could get in the way.

I'm going to do what I've sought out to do.

You are my anointed king. And David is historically, but

of course we know of a greater king, the Messiah

coming later. This psalm in itself doesn't begin, you know,

as defining David as the author. However, the New Testament

attributes it to David in Acts chapter 4, verses 24

Acts 4:24–26

through 26. You can look that up later. But it

attributes this. This is David who's written this. Now, the

purpose of its writing historically, it could mean a number

of things. It could be, I like this first one

as my favorite. We don't really know the setting of it.

But it could be that it was written for David's

own coronation as a king. It's a pretty good coronation speech.

an inauguration speech, if you will, all right? And by

the way, it's not as long as our last inauguration

speech that we had as a country. Or it could

have been written for the coronation of one of his

descendants or as a royal psalm celebrating God's covenant with

David's dynasty. But I love the coronation piece. It doesn't

mean that that's historically accurate. We just don't know. But

let's begin in Psalm chapter 2, beginning in verse 1.

Psalms 2 · chapter mention

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 anointed, saying,

let us break their bonds in pieces and cast away.

Their cords from us. Now let me pause there for

a moment.

I don't know if you, don't watch a lot of

the news, by the way, because 70% of it's not

true and you can't figure out what 30% of it is.

You don't know these things, but the little bit that

we do get is simply this. is that we know

that there are nations today that rage against God. There's

groups within the United States, they rage against the Lord.

And here's the Lord's answer to this coming up in

verse 4. He who sits in the heavens shall laugh.

What that means is he scoffs at them going like,

what are you doing, you know? It's kind of like,

I don't know, if you have children, and we do,

we have two girls, and.

Our older one, Rachel.

Man, she would, and both of them did, but she

would do some things. As a parent, I'd sit back,

I'm like, I'm just going to let her do it.

And you kind of laugh going, I know how this

is going to end. I know how this is going

to work out. And you would scoff a bit. You

would laugh a bit because you say, you know what's

going to, our kids sometimes would argue with us about

what they're going to do and what they're not going

to do. And I thought it was great because I'd

be like, I know what you're going to end up doing.

But you can argue all you want and try to

fight me all you want, but I know what's going

to come of this, okay? You are going to go

to church. You're not going to do this. We know

those things. So he who sits in the heavens shall laugh.

The Lord will 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. That's a quote from the Lord.

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. Now,

when you hear the word begotten, what you do, as

my mind does anyways, goes immediately to John 3.16. His

only begotten son. Say, well, how can Jesus Christ be

begotten in John 3.16? And here we have this meaning here,

and it's written, and David is saying this. Because the

word begotten has two meanings. And I love these two meanings.

The word begotten has two meanings. See, the Hebrew language

has far more. fewer words than what the English language does.

And there was two meanings for some of the words,

some words, three or four. But this word begotten means

brought forth or fathered. And when you look at that

and the beauty of this, God brought forth David, but

he fathered Jesus Christ. It's a beautiful text. When you

read this, is that here it is. Today I have

begotten you. I have brought you forth. Ask of me

and I will give you the nations for your inheritance.

And at the ends of the earth for your possession.

You shall break them with a rod of iron. You

shall dash them into pieces like a potter's vessels. Now therefore,

be wise, O kings. Be instructed, you judges of the earth.

Serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling. Verse 12,

we're going to talk about this at the end of

the message today. Kiss the Son. Not the Son, S-U-N, S-O-N.

Capital S-O-N, as a matter of fact. Kiss the Son,

lest he be angry, and you perish in the way.

When his wrath is kindled but a little... Blessed are

those who put their trust in him. Let's pray over

the scripture this morning. Heavenly Father, we thank you for

this gift of the scripture. We thank you for your word.

As we expand on this and as we discuss this

this morning, I thank you for the message you've given me.

May I communicate it.

In a way, God, that will glorify you.

In your name we pray. Amen.

So you know where we're at in the message today.

Now start preaching, all right? I've given you the introduction.

There's going to be three points, and then we're going

to conclude. And I'll let you know where we are

all along the way. I'll move pretty quickly here. Psalm

2 reveals God's absolute sovereignty over history as the nations

rebel against his ordained king. The psalm ultimately points to

Jesus Christ, the eternal son, whom the father has installed

as king.

Over all creation.

and to whom every ruler and person must submit, and

I'll add, will submit to him. Point number one, rebellion

is futile against God's sovereign rule. Man, I can fight

all I want to. God's going to get his way.

Every leader of the earth, every country, every politician, every group, Me, you, man,

we can.

Either say, Lord, I'm going to follow you, but we've

got to know this.

His way is the only way, and rebellion against God's

sovereign rule is absolutely useless, futile, and not good. worth

it human opposition can't not cannot defeat God's redemptive plan

and the only refuge from his righteous judgment is to

trust in Jesus Christ as our savior the psalm calls

believers to confidence in God's sovereign rule and calls all

people to repentance faith and and joyful obedience to the Son.

Romans chapter 3, verses 10 through 18, will talk about

Romans 3:10–18

how the nations rage because sinful humanity is naturally opposed.

To God's authority.

We are born into a sinful world. There is a

world and an influence. We don't fight against flesh and blood.

I don't fight against you. You don't fight against me. Man,

we're fighting against principalities. Satan wants to distract us and

move us and get us off the tracks. I'll call

it the rails of good doctrine and theologically sound and

to get us off moral and godly principles. He'll do

everything he can to move us off those rails, and

that's the world that we live in.

I won't call it fair. I'll just call it the

way that it is.

And God allows us to wander. And sometimes I'm like, Lord,

I wish you wouldn't let me, but he does. But

human autonomy is an illusion. Rebellion against God is both

irrational and ultimately futile. I've talked about a movement. I

may have mentioned it here before. And resist it when

you can because at the surface it sounds kind of logical.

You'll see, especially I was at the opportunity to work

in the Linder Center of Hope. for a couple years

as a chaplain over there and they would explain to

the patients you know you're enough well on the surface

that sounds okay man you're enough you can get this

done you're enough and at the end of the day

we're not we are not enough we are rebellious by

nature we live in a world of sin and to

think that we can accomplish anything.

Apart from Jesus Christ is a lie we're not enough.

As parents, as grandparents, as a community, as a church,

we've got to teach people, you're not enough, but with

Christ you are. You're complete with him. We are incomplete

without him. We are complete with him.

Why?

Because we were made in the image of God. But

the New Testament goes on to explain more in John 15,

John 15:5

verse 5. It says, I am the vine, you are

the branches. Whoever abides in me... And I in him,

he it is that bears much fruit. For apart from me,

you can do nothing.

Wow.

When I go out of here today, if I decide

to be in the flesh, I can do nothing.

Oh, carnal me.

Man, at the end of the day, I'm a bad guy.

Don't get too high and mighty there because none of

us are good. No, not one is what the Bible says.

Because we decide we're going to be apart from Christ.

We are alone. We are not enough. We are not complete.

And we can do nothing without him. So I can

go home and mow the grass today if I want to.

I can get something done. Didn't mean anything to him. Now,

I'm not saying not to go home.

And mow your grass.

I might do that today because the grass is, I'd

mow the grass all day. It's the most relaxing thing

I could ever do. I think I mow my grass

about every other day just as a way to get

away and relax. That's not the point that I'm making.

The point that I'm making is that we abide in Christ.

I abide in him and he abides in me. There's

a glory that comes along with it and something gets

accomplished that we couldn't accomplish before. Total depravity explains why

all people, all people, Apart from God's grace, reject God's

rightful king. We're just depraved and just not good people

at all without Jesus Christ. The verse teaches this, and

people often want to live independently of God, and there's

a reason for that. Now, I think I've preached on

the 23rd Psalm here before. I mentioned it again this morning,

is that, man, sheep, we're just not, you know, the

Lord refers us to sheep, and he's the shepherd. And

sheep just aren't very bright. You know what will happen?

You take 100 sheep and turn them loose in your

parking lot. They will not be here tomorrow morning. They're

what we call prone to wander. They're a wandering animal.

They love the companionship of the other sheep. They love

the sound of the shepherd's voice, but they're prone to wander.

You want to know why? They're too busy eating grass.

They just keep going. As long as there's green grass

in front of a sheep, he'll just go and go

and go until he wanders off a cliff. Unless the

shepherd's there to grab them and say, you're going the

wrong way. We cannot survive without the shepherd. That's why

the song says, O to grace how great a debtor,

daily I'm constrained to be. Let that grace now like

a fetter bind my wandering heart to thee. Prone to wander, Lord,

I feel it. Prone to leave the God I love.

Here's my heart, O take it, seal it, seal it

for thy courts above. Man alone, I just get lost.

I am thankful for a God who loves me. And

when I asked Jesus Christ to be my Lord and

my Savior, and I confessed him as my Lord and Savior,

that he keeps me from wandering too far, he will

correct me. A man get on me like nobody else.

Diane's second, she gets on me too. But God gave

her to me, so she is... She's God's anointed one

in my life, no question about it. Point number two,

God's eternal decree is certain. Nothing we can do about it.

God is neither threatened nor surprised by human rebellion. He

laughs because his sovereign purpose cannot fail. The Father has

eternally appointed his son, Jesus Christ, as the universal king

whose reign is certain.

Man, I can't wait for Jesus to come again.

I can't decide which I'd rather do. I'm ready to

go to heaven. I'd love to be there. And it

is about seeing people. I just want to be there, man. Heaven,

the way Revelation describes it, I can't wait to see it,

to be in the presence.

Of God and to be there. Diane hates it when

I talk about it.

I mean, if we go, I won't have the capability

of missing my grandkids.

I love them.

I've got five grandkids out in Reno, Nevada, and I

hope I've been an impression on their life to leave

what their papaw was like. If the Lord takes me tomorrow,

praise the Lord, I get to go to heaven. This

world can't do anything to me. God is sovereign over

my life.

I get to go.

I haven't decided whether I want to go before he

comes or Have a lawn chair and a lemonade in

the cemetery when he comes back. I'm not sure, but

one of those two things. God's eternal decree governs history.

And Christ will accomplish all of the Father's purposes.

I love that. Number three. There's wisdom in submitting to Christ.

Got to read Psalm chapter 2 again and You can

Psalms 2 · chapter mention

see how much wisdom is there.

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. I know what end

of that I'd like to be on. I'd like to

be on the end of submitting to Christ. There's times

I'm not. I just want to let you know that.

There's times when I haven't.

I've experienced....

Not submitting to Christ, and I have experienced submitting to Christ.

Ten to one, without hesitation, I would rather live submitting

to him than without him. It's a train wreck without

the Lord. I'm a hot mess. I mean, Diane can

know it. She can see it when I drift. She

doesn't call me out. She just prays, Lord, you got

to get him back on track, man. This guy, he's

a train wreck.

And I am.

Just a dumb old sheep. But there's wisdom in submitting

to Christ. The psalm ends with both a warning and

a gracious invitation.

Kiss the son.

Say, what in the world seems a little touchy-feely to me? Well,

it says in verse 10, 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 those who take

refuge in him. In the Near East, here's what this meant.

Here's the meaning behind this. The kissing of a leader,

a king's hand or feet, was a gesture of homage

It was a sign of loyalty, submission, and allegiance. And

it means the same today, and I'll give you the example.

Diane and I are going to go. We've got a

big Sunday adventure planned. We're going to Sam's Club.

All right? We go down there.

On my wedding day, I remember the words of the pastor.

My favorite words. I now pronounce you man and wife.

You may kiss the bride.

Man, I was ready.

Now, there's a whole story behind that. Do y'all know

this story? I don't even know if you know the story.

I met Diane on a Wednesday and asked her to

marry me the following Monday. And we're coming up on

37 years. Yeah, coming up on 38 years. Now, I

don't recommend that, okay? I don't think you should do that.

The Lord ordained that moment. He ordained that service. But

what would.

She have done during that service if I'd gone and

kissed somebody else? I kissed her. She's the only one

I kiss. Now, what would she do?

We go to Sam's Club today, and she's like, I've

got to go over here and grab some more broccoli.

I don't want to be anywhere near the stuff. She

comes around the corner, and I'm kissing somebody else. Let

me tell you something. There's a reason why she conceals

and carries.

I think it's for that very reason.

If she ever saw me, I think she'd shoot me.

Because the homage would not be there. The loyalty would

be gone. The submission would be absence and the allegiance

would be in question. And God says, pay homage to

the sons Be loyal to Jesus Christ. Submit to Jesus Christ.

Have allegiance with Jesus Christ. Say, well, I can't physically

kiss Jesus Christ. He's not here in front of me.

Don't kiss me, all right? We got that deal. I'm

not a, you know, this kissing on the cheek stuff

by other people.

I'm not a big fan, all right? Now, here's what

I mean by this. Jesus says... This is the only

question I'll ask you.

Hopefully you'll answer it out loud right. If you love me,

you'll keep my what?

Commandments. If you love me, you'll keep my commandments.

We pay homage and loyalty and submission and allegiance to

Jesus Christ.

When we obey him. We do what he says. It's

a powerful sign of loyalty. Loyalty.

True wisdom is found not in resisting Christ, but in

humble repentance, faith, and joyful obedience. It's not I got

to obey Jesus. I get to obey Jesus, and there's

a difference. I got to eat broccoli tonight. But I

get to eat steak.

You see the difference? There's some joy there. I'll get

through the broccoli. It's all right.

Sorry to give you such a hard time, but you've

got to get some green beans in your life. But anyways,

we just really get joyful about it. It's kind of

like joyful giving. Y'all know what I'm talking about there?

I bet there's a bunch, if not all of you,

joyful givers in the church. I bet there is. You

love either writing that check, putting the cash on the plate,

however you guys do it. Joyful givers. Man, there's something

joyful for me anyways. I hope you get joy out

of it. I hope you get cheerful about it when

you give. Take that same joy in obedience. I get

to obey God today. I get to obey the commandments.

I get to be obedient to Jesus Christ. I get

to show loyalty. Man, you know how happy it makes Jesus?

Jesus knows we're loyal when we.

Keep his commandments.

Saving faith is God's gracious gift, and all who take

refuge in Christ are eternally blessed because of his finished work.

This is where I get down to the title of

the message that I mentioned earlier. Psalm 2 presents every

person with only two responses to Jesus.

This is it. The whole world. Everybody on the planet.

You know the Lord's not going to come until everybody's heard.

And there's going to be two responses when everybody hears.

They're either going to take refuge in Jesus.

Or they're going to rebel. One of the two.

Some people die before they ever get the chance to

do that, and I feel so badly for them. But

when you hear the gospel, and the whole world's going

to hear, there's either going to be a choice of

rebellion or refuge.

I choose refuge. Why? Why?

Because God's sovereign king cannot be overthrown. His kingdom cannot

fail and his gospel invitation remains absolutely.

Open to all who will confess him.

The blessed life belongs to all who abandon self-rule and

find their refuge in the Lord Jesus Christ.

The reigning king of kings. Today, I don't know you

well enough to say this.

I don't know how long you've been going to church

here or coming in the door.

But if you're here today and you've never.

Received Jesus Christ, Romans chapter 10 verses 9 and 10

Romans 10:9

explains this. The first thing you've got to do is

understand that I am separated from God without Jesus Christ.

It's a great gulf. There's nothing I can do about it.

But Jesus did something about it. And if we will believe,

you can look at Romans 10, 9 and 10. If

you can believe that God sent His Son to the

earth to die on the cross for our sins and

rose again on the third day and you will confess

Him as Savior, you will be saved.

That's my prayer for you today.

And if you're here today and you already know Jesus

Christ as your Savior, take refuge in knowing Jesus. Later today,

there's supposed to be some Lord, help us all some

more rain coming in. I was out, again, back to

mowing the lawn yesterday. I was out mowing, and I

knew it was going to thunderstorm. It was ugly on

the radar. I was looking at it. I'm like, I

get it done. I mow ours and the two neighbors

next to us, and I'm out there mowing. It's on

a riding lawnmower, and I'm telling you what, There was

a clap of thunder came. I thought it was about

eight feet away from me. I saw the lightning. And

you know, now you see the lightning and the lightning

and the thunder are that close together in sound and light.

I drove as fast as that mower could get into

my shed and I got inside the house.

I took refuge.

Christian, you're either just got through a storm. You're in

one right now or you're getting ready to go through one.

Always take refuge in Jesus. Let's pray together while the

praise team comes. Heavenly Father, wow, thank you.

For the opportunity to be here today. What a gift

this is.

Lord, I pray that when I experience those storms in

my life, as a believer, Lord, I just want to

take refuge in you.

You are completely sovereign.

Lord, I do hope there's never another storm again, but

we know there will be.

May I trust in you.

God, if there's anyone here that doesn't know you as

Savior and Lord, that today would be the day that

they would come during this time and hymn of invitation.

They would come and pray with someone and confess you

as their Savior. God, I thank you for this time together.

In your name I pray.

Amen. Let's stand together.