Kiss the Son

Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cord from us.

That's what the nations, peoples, kings, rulers are saying about God and his anointed. There's a desire here to be free. There's a desire here to say we don't have a ruler, we don't have a king. It's ultimately saying God is not our creator. We want to be independent. We don't want to be dependent upon a God who tells us who we are and what we do and what we should not do. We want to be independent. We want to be our own rulers. They don't want to be under a creator. They want to be their own God. They want to be self-ruled. What does this mean? In the garden, we can go back and see this is what Adam and Eve desired. God said, don't eat of one tree. Everything else is for your enjoyment. But they desired to see something better than what God had shown them. They desired to know something better than what God had made known to them, and that is himself. And they lost everything. We can see the history of man after this is rejecting God, Cain refusing to worship God as he deserves. Nations raging against God. This past month, we can think about how our own nation's capital had a flag hanging that represented celebrating pride against God and against his order. And while that should bother us, it should be even more offensive that we regularly see so-called churches regularly waving the same flag that represents a pride against God and his good order. We see regularly raging of the peoples. And much of this takes place because the nations and peoples are raging against their own citizens, the other human beings. They do not protect the innocent. They don't let them be murdered. They don't protect the vulnerable. As we think about this raging, we gotta be very careful and clear. We don't call something raging against God when it just goes over against our own norms and ideals. We see raging when we see people denying and defying God in his clear word. We live in our own nation. I reached out to a couple friends of mine who pastor in other nations, and I said, what does this look like? In one nation where we have missionary partners, well, the police knock on the church door and they give them very clear warnings. If you're a citizen of that nation, you might disappear and be in slave labor the rest of your life, however short that may be. For an amount of the Middle East, he reported with just devastating how the church in Afghanistan has been decimated recently. In Nepal and India, based upon whatever region you're in, there's attacks on churches, grenades, bombs being thrown in churches while people are worshiping. He added an interesting thing where, as he's looking at the Middle East and Africa, that where churches do exist in freedom and protection, sadly they've been diluted with nominalism. That's an attack from within that we don't think about here. We need to be careful the way we consider what this raging looks like. It is plotting in vain. Be sure God will judge every sin and every sinner. But if you look back to a passage we read earlier, David read, this is what we decided to set ourselves towards when we rejected God in the garden. There's going to be enmity between God's people and the nations of the peoples. We shouldn't be surprised. This is what God said would happen as the normal pattern now because sin reigns in this world as it is. Most of world history is marked by violence, chaos, corruption. We're bad today, just in a different way. The nation's rage, we feel that, but do we feel that we also have been part of that desire for self-rule? So the psalm begins with a significant question, a significant declaration, and notice each one keeps moving along as the story goes, and it's about what people are saying. The nations rage. Let us remove God, any notion from God, from the way we're supposed to live. We want to be self-ruled. Well, next is God's wrath, four to six. A significant turn in the psalm.

He who sits in the heavens laughs, and the Lord holds them in derision.

This is spoken from what God is doing while the nations are raging, the nations are plotting, they're all coming together and devising a plan to overthrow God, and what is God doing? A couple observations. First, he's sitting. He's not standing at attention. He's not pacing worried. He's not wringing his fingers, oh no. He's sitting in perfect power and peace. He laughs. We need to capture what's happening here with the way God looks at sin and sinners. We need to remember that when Adam and Eve, when they first sinned, God came to them and he pursued them in grace and asked, where are you? There's a way in which God clearly looks at the sinfulness of man and sees what we've given up and how we've rejected him and how we've caused so much trouble in ourselves. But with this kind of raging, with this kind of animosity rebellion that is supposed to be a threat to God, he laughs. There's no threat. God is in no way pacing or worried He laughs, there's no authority. He shakes his head, what are you doing? An example of what this looks like in scripture is with Pharaoh in Egypt. When God brought about those plagues, he's mocking every one of their gods, or so-called gods. He toyed with Pharaoh just to show he is God to be worshiped. Exodus 14.4, one of the most significant verses there in the Exodus, he says to Moses, after they've left the nation, Israel is now moving out of the nation of Egypt, and they're about to go to the Red Sea, and God says to Moses, one more time,

I will harden Pharaoh's heart so that he will pursue you.

God is designing it, he is declaring it, he is leading it. He says,

I will get glory over Pharaoh. So Egypt will know that I am God.

Pharaoh, who has resisted, rejected, hardened his own heart against God. God says, I will harden his heart once more. He will come after you and I will overthrow him. There's no threat. No, I'm doing this so that the Egyptians will know that I am God. Well, what's amazing is how over and over again, the people plot in vain. and rage against God. And what should it cause us to foresee is he's not threatened, he's a powerful God, he's sovereign, he's sitting. And this is also the same God who will turn his attention to his affection to save these people. He's showing mercy to the Egyptians by overthrowing Pharaoh that they would even know he's God. Verse five. He sits, he laughs, he's not threatened in any way. Then he will speak to them in his wrath. This is no true laughing matter. This is the serious business of creatures worshiping their creator.

He will speak to them in his wrath and terrify them in his fury.

God will bring justice. Notice what he says. As they rage, as they plot,

as for me, I have set my king on Zion, my holy hill.

The kings of the nations, the kings of the people, they're raging and plotting, they're fighting as God, and what does God do in his sovereignty? He sets up his king to rightfully establish his rule. He doesn't retreat. He doesn't just wipe out everyone. He responds to the king's raging and the people's raging by showing, here's my king. Here's my good rule. His solution is to go into the problem. His solution is to go straight into the problem. Zion being representation of Jerusalem. Here, God is establishing his kingdom of righteous rule in the midst of all the unruliness. The kingdom of God is a major theme throughout scripture, especially at the beginning of the gospels. God's kingdom, the best definition I know of, it's God's people in a right relationship with God under his righteous rule. God is always ruling us with righteousness. It's a matter of we're actually coming to him to have a right relationship according to how he forgives us and receives us. It's a matter of we're coming to him desiring to be under his righteous rule again, not like the raging of verse three. God does not come to convince people, to persuade people, to explain further. No, he comes with a king who will bring about the right way to execute his law. That's God's wrath. That's what terrifies the kings. Here's my king. Well, we need to ask, who is this king and why is he so terrifying? That's the third point that we see, rule. We see right rule and most significantly, that anointed one the nations are raging against, It's the same as the king that sat on Mount Zion, and here we see one more layer. He's the son of God. There's a significant shift. The nations say, remove God's sovereignty. 4-6 says, I will set up my king, and 7-9 declares that king is a son who will rule in righteousness. Seven also has a shift. Notice it's first person, I will speak. Who is this I? Again, this is where the psalm has some layers to it. I believe this psalm is most fitting to be Christ, the ultimate fulfillment, but Acts 4 tells us it's David speaking, carried along with the Holy Spirit. It's David recognizing that God has promised a king And if you remember last week, Psalm 1, well, Psalm 1 declares delight in God's law. Well, that means it's dependent upon Exodus 20, where God gave us 10 commandments. And I believe it's dependent upon Deuteronomy 6, 4, where God declares, I, the Lord your God, am one. And then he tells the people how to live out that truth. Well, this declaration of David related to the king, I believe this has to be built upon 2 Samuel 7. where David said, God, I have a really nice house, can I build you one? I said, no, you're not gonna build me a house, I'll build you a house, meaning a line, a dynasty. One of your sons, one of your descendants, one of your offspring, David, will rule as king forever. And I will be like a father to him, and he will be like a son to me. David here, I believe, is capturing that promise, The anointed one, the king, is also functioning somehow as a son. So this is a coronation psalm. When David would give a coronation for the next king, or the next king would be deemed the new king, it's kind of a coronation. There's a power of what's happening here. I believe it's speaking more than just David, or Solomon, or one of the many kings that came afterwards. Because I believe verse seven is speaking of Jesus Christ, the true son of God, in a unique way. Notice the decree that David declares, carried along by the Holy Spirit.

The Lord said to me, you are my son, that I have begotten you.

Again, we see themes all coming together. Isaiah 11 tells us the root of Jesse, he'll be given the Holy Spirit. We see the anointed one and the King coming together in Isaiah 11. And 2 Samuel 7 tells us that King is also like a son. Themes are coming together that we can't all explain right now in this passage, but as we look to Deuteronomy 6, Israel is where the Lord your God is one. We see throughout scripture that that one God is regularly declaring something of a son in the Old Testament. We see constant illusions that the one God has a son. In order to have a son, you have to have a father? Those are relational terms? When we come to the New Testament, we see Jesus declaring,

before Abraham was, I am.

He calls God his own father, and the Israelites know what this means. They want to stone him. I believe we go from Israel, the Lord your God is Lord is one, and that is true, that one God is father and son. Now, if that's too difficult to fully wrap your head around, you're starting to know God a little bit. If you've never wrapped your head around God, you've lost him. We're gonna receive by faith what is clearly revealed in Scripture. God is one. The one God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This language of today I have begotten you, my beloved Son, we see this played out as Jesus goes to the baptismal. The heavens open up and a voice speaks as the Holy Spirit descends as a dove.

This is my beloved Son.

Well, who's speaking? It's God the Father. We see this theology play out where we know that God is one, and he is Father, Son, Holy Spirit. And again, this is much for us to take in. We have to realize, as David was told, one of your descendants will be the forever king, and that forever king will be my son, will be like a son. Well, we actually know from Scripture, God has a proper son. There's been an eternally begotten son of God. He's not created, he's begotten. He's begotten, and it isn't that a king gets adopted into being a son, no, it's the true son who's worthy of all glory and honor and praise, the true son who created, the true son whom they're rejecting and raging against, the true son, he came down to be king. He descended to become like us so that he would exercise God's righteous rule among the nations. We know this as Christmas, the incarnation. God's son enters the womb of a woman and takes on humanity. We know this as Easter, as Christ dies on the cross victorious. over sin and death? We know this as the resurrection in Christ, rising from the dead as a victorious ruler to bring about new life. Notice here there's a different view of what Christ reigning as king emphasizes in verses five and six. I'm sorry, eight and nine. The son who becomes king, the son who is given the kingdom, the son who is supposed to be ruling in righteousness, verse eight, ask of me, God says, and I will make the nations that are raging 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 a potter's vessel.

God was always meant to be our king, our ruler. We rejected him as our ruler. God the Father promised he would send a ruler, a new king, a righteous one to execute justice. And here is judgment, it's wrath over against the raging. The Son of God, our creator, he came to bring about a justice. Again, we have to go back to Genesis 3.15. God's soul told Satan that a child would be born of Eve, that there would be a constant enmity, a hatred, a rage in between God's people and Satan's people, those who follow him as their master. And that included that the child born of Eve, the child that is promised, the one child who would rule in righteousness, he will strike, he will crush the head of Satan after Satan strikes his heel. Friends, the nation's raging in enmity, they will all be crushed by the Son in judgment. We're supposed to be bringing to the point here that Jesus is, he's reigning as ascended into the heavens right under the Father. God's not threatened. As we think about all the trouble, all the worry, all the things, the wars, the rumors of wars, God laughed before he set up his king. He's not worried about it now. There's a complete sovereignty. We can actually look back and see how perfectly God is sovereign in executing his plan of salvation over against the kings of the nations that are raging against him. As we consider this passage, it's always most helpful to go to how the New Testament uses it. And I believe this is where that Acts 4 is very informative. Jesus came to bring about judgment. And if you were an Israelite and you were looking at Psalm 2 and you heard Jesus the Messiah, you expect verses 8 and 9 to happen. And that's what the disciples kept getting hung up on. They didn't realize there's a two-tiered mission of Jesus. the mission of grace to come and die for sinners, and then he will come again and execute perfect justice. They didn't understand there were two comings of Jesus. They believed there was only one. We're waiting for the eight and nine to be fully finalized. And so if you're a disciple walking around with Jesus at that time, you're kind of confused. He gets handcuffed? He gets tried like that? He gets nailed to the cross? He looks defeated rather than the one who's crushing the evil people raging against God and his anointed. Well, the early church, they saw him risen, they understood what was going on, they understood he's gonna come back, they understood they had a mission, and Acts 4 is helpful because as the apostles are proclaiming the gospel of Jesus, they're continuing the work of Jesus, they've received power from on high, they're proclaiming the same gospel of Jesus Christ, well, the nations keep raging. They raged against Jesus, they put him to death, as Jesus said. Now they're raging against the church, as Jesus said. As they quote Acts 4, they make it clear the perfect fulfillment, the true fulfillment of verses one to three raging, took place when they killed God. When they put Jesus on the cross. Now they're still living under the same rage, and their prayer is so instructive. Verse 29 of Acts 4,

look upon their threats.

Hear their rage, O God, against you and your anointed and your people. Hear their threats against your church and us proclaiming your son, the king. Hear us, Lord. And then the request, grant to your servants Give to us what we need in order to continue speaking with boldness. What a helpful prayer for us if we feel the weight of raging people's nations and kings. What a helpful model in showing us how Psalm 2 relates to us right now. We're waiting for the king to come and dash to pieces the final judgment, but while we're waiting after he's risen and he's ascended, the prayer is that the church would remain bold, contending for the faith, holding fast to the word that Christ gave us. This is a prayer for us. This is a prayer when you feel the weight of the government pressing in. The hope is that we would be more bound to Christ. We would not feel the threats. We would not deter from our mission. We would have courage from God to proclaim the good news. Church, Christ died for us, rose again, He has all power and authority and has commissioned us to a work, and that work is to make disciples of Jesus Christ. When he gives us a commission, he gives us power to continue in that. This is why they're praying for the power. There's a real threat externally. Give us what we need to continue proclaiming Christ boldly. Something else we need to realize here is the church can too easily be distracted by civilian affairs. Let's first make peace before we continue proclaiming and boldly. If you're worried about what the government's doing, a nation's doing, a people's doing, it's not to hide, to fight back the way they're fighting, it's God give us the grace to continue in your mission to proclaim Christ faithfully. Notice how they begin that prayer in Acts 4.

Almighty God who created the heavens and the sea, everything that exists.

They're praying to the God who is the creator of all. He created even those who are in the church. The mission of the church is to be on the attack. Trusting almighty God creator is our savior and our king. The church is meant to be the church militant right now. We might not like that kind of language, but that's the traditional language of the church. We're longing to be the church at rest when we're in the presence of God, having sin completely removed, and we're all in the holy place beholding his glory. Until then, we're the church militant. We're marching up against the gates of Hades with a promise the gates of Hades will not resist the proclamation of the full gospel of Jesus Christ. I fear we too often think we need to employ the strengths and powers of this earth in order to fulfill the mission of Christ. No. The church has been given power from on high. The Holy Spirit. The church has been given the most powerful weapon, the most powerful instrument known in this earth. It's the gospel of Jesus Christ. The word of God that when received, turns guilty people innocent, gives life to death. We're not seeking to use earthly instruments to destroy and conquer. No, we're using godly instruments to bring actual life and goodness and order. The church too often wants to use power from the earth, from this world. When we've been given the gospel of Jesus Christ, that actually changes lives. We are in a battle, we cannot be confused by that. Too often I think the church either believes we should be comfortable and at rest, or we need to use a power that is not given to the church. There's problems all around us. Church, pray, and persevere in the gospel ministry. What everybody's been waiting for, how political are we gonna get here, right? If we're going to consider this American experiment of democracy, freedom of religion, wealth gained through capitalism, too much to think about at all. I'm not the person to even give you the whole history of America or a history of America, but let's just consider post-World War II to 2000. Arguably, easily, America, one of the mightiest in military strength, one of the most influential nations among other nations. We're certainly the most affluent nation among the nations. During this time, our culture embraced a sexual revolution, turned heroes to pop stars instead of role models, turned from heroes towards pop stars for role models. The most significant export I believe America had during this season was Hollywood and pornography. We can look at our nation, our history, our culture, but the most pressing question is, where was the church? What were we doing? And I want to be careful there. I want to say, where is the church? Because there's not the Church of America. Where were the different churches? What were churches doing? Why weren't we exporting godliness and missionaries and pastors to establish God's good reign elsewhere? Well, during this time, churches too often embraced experience over sound teaching. Pragmatism over godly practice became nominal because it was comfortable. And therefore, we thought we'd make the religion comfortable. And we turn towards a prosperity gospel in the midst of all the affluence. Churches stopped contending for the faith. In comfort, they stopped contending for the faith. I hear folks today, I get regular correspondences, how I'm supposed to be correcting the government. It's not my job. Let's pray in Christ and crucify. The job of the church is to make disciples who will worship Jesus Christ and make him known. Why would we think we need to go and preach some points of the Constitution or proclaim something against the nation when the church's main failure is they stopped training disciples of Jesus Christ? That's our mission. If you want to know how the church can be the greatest blessing to the nation, is by actually committing to being the church that is being trained up as disciples of Jesus Christ. That makes the best citizens of a people. Church, members of Jefferson Park, we will be the right blessing to our nation and our neighbors when we are faithfully serving the Lord with fear and trembling. It's not turning to use the powers of this earth. It's trusting the power of the gospel, the power of his word. coming together and praying together, praying for our nation. That's the most powerful thing you can do. This text does tell us our problem. The nations are raging. We can feel that. The solution is to trust Christ and proclaim him, knowing he will bring perfect justice. The last point. Rejoice. The son who reigns who is going to bring about this absolute destruction, he invites us to rejoice. The nation's rage, the God who sits on high, who reigns, declares a wrath, and that wrath is he will establish his son as the king, and now therefore, notice we're going back to those rage-filled kings. We're going back to those who wanna overthrow God. Listen how kind God is to speak to them this way. Kings be warned. The ones who are raging against him, the ones who killed his own son, he says be warned. Listen to instruction, be wise. What a kind God. What a righteous king. Kings who are raging, rulers who are plotting. Listen to instruction. Hear the warning. Listen to this invitation, verse 11.

Serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling.

If you want to know what the opposite of verse three is, it's verse 11. There's two ways to live. We're either trying to resist God and throw him off, or we're serving him with fear and rejoicing with trembling. We're either resisting God, rejecting God, or we're coming to serve. The word serve is so tied to worship. We're sitting underneath him. We're seeking to make much of him. We're seeking to trust him. There's a fear because he's the holy God who we sinned against. But instead of throwing him off, we seek to come under and serve and worship and rejoice. And then how intimate it is. Kiss the son. Receive the son who is established as the king. Receive God Almighty who came to rule us and give us a warning that if we continue, we will perish.

Lest he be angry and you perish in the way for his wrath is quickly kindled.

His wrath is sure. The king's wrath is sure. You're fighting against the holy God. His wrath is sure. But his kindness is offered. Be wise. Be warned. Serve the Lord with fear. Rejoice with trembling. Kiss the son. If you're not a believer this morning, here's a simple way to receive this son. You know, God has a son. God the Father has sent his son to become like us so that he could die for us as our forgiver. He dies in our place so that our sin is placed on him and he dies to take our sin away from us by being the one who declares us righteous then. And then he rises again to give us new life. The first step of coming out of the bursting away from God and raising as God is believing in his son who's good. who saves us. Believer, if we've received the Son, are we seeking to live under the Son's rule? Do we really believe He's a good King? We come back to a question from last week. Do you enjoy God's good rule? Do we enjoy knowing God's keen by submitting to God's commands. Jesus said,

if you love me, you'll keep my commandments.

Christianity is not void of expectation. Christian, we know the king. We're called to make him known. There's two things I want us to meditate upon before we end. First, we, the church, those who believe in Christ, We are not in the inheritance of what Jesus spoke in verse eight and nine. You've been saved from that. It's what we've all deserve. It's what we are saved from only by believing in Jesus Christ, by hearing the warning, hearing the instruction, coming to Christ. Number two, we are not that inheritance. Rather, we've received an inheritance. We received being adopted into the family of God. We received a forgiveness, we received a redemption, we received all the blessings of God in Jesus Christ. The question is, are we walking in a way that we desire to know him according to his word so we can make him known? Here are the last words.

Blessed are all who take refuge in him.

The first words of Psalm 1, blessed is he who does not walk in the way of sinners, but delights in God's word. This week we're ending this Psalm introduction, blessed are all who take refuge in God. The only way to be blessed is by believing in Jesus Christ. The only way out of the fury of God, the only way out of God's wrath is by taking refuge in Jesus Christ. The only way you know God's son is from his word, his law. And the only way you know he is the ruler is by trusting him and his law. It's a weighty passage. It teaches us we've been designed to be ruled. God's rule is good. When we're frustrated with the concept of rule, it's because we know all the unruliness of our own hearts and all those other sinners. One of the most pressing things from Psalm 1 and Psalm 2, there are only two ways to live. Blessed, delighting in God's word, taking refuge in God's son and king, or raging against him, participating in sin. There are only two ways to live. The choice before you is to believe in Jesus Christ's son and seek to follow his word, or to continue in sin. That leads to judgment and perishing. Pray that you would know Jesus Christ, the King, God's Son, so that you would know his life and you would know his good rule. Will you pray with me? Father, we come before you as those who have raged against your righteous rule Lord, we're amazed at your patience as we've shaken our fist at you. We've ignored you, we've denied you. And as you've brought about a plan of salvation and ultimate judgment, you speak today, and I pray we would all hear today. Be wise. Be warned that we may all turn to your son. Believe in him. Rejoice with trembling. Serve with fear. You are holy God because of all you've done for us to save us. Lord, may we rejoice that you are the perfect God of righteousness. May we Learn how to delight in being under your rule. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.