THE LORDS WILL, WILL ENDURE (Psalm 2)

Baptism, Welcome, and Prayer for Harvest Baptist

We have a very special Sunday. It's always special when you see the baptismal set up our trough up here. Which by the way, y 'all need to thank Justin and Ryan because this week they filled it up and to found out it was leaking.

So we had water all over in front of the stage and they took care of it this week and got it all settled and now It is not leaking. It's ready to go so it was quite the week preparing but it is worth preparing for a wonderful day to be able to Worship the Lord and to be able to experience our brother Caleb being baptized.

He's got much of his family and friends here. Praise the Lord. We're so grateful, but thank you for being here. I just want to welcome all of our covenant members as I do every single week. Thank you for bringing your gifts your abilities whatever King Jesus has gifted you with and designed you for for the betterment of the body and we are Recipients of that gift so thank you for that.

You are loved you are loved by a triune God and you are loved by the people here. I also want to say a special. Thank you. We have a lot of guests today, but thank you for joining us today. You are loved.

We are so glad that you are here if if I don't have one of the cards up here with me I usually bring one up with me. But there's a connect card if you wouldn't mind filling that out. We'd love the chance to get to know you maybe answer some questions about who we are and at the bottom of that card.

There's a place where you can write out prayer requests. And so there's a group of us that meet every Tuesday morning, and we will see that and we will be able to pray Specifically for you by name and for your request and so if you have one of those connect cards.

And you want to fill that out you can drop it the offering plate here in a moment when it comes by. But we are so grateful that you've chosen to join us this morning. Our prayer is that all of us covenant members and guests would grow in the fear and in the knowledge of the triune God the Father God the Son God the Holy Spirit today.

We come together and worship that triune God because he is worthy of praise. Amen. Amen, so it's a glorious day when we get together. I love the Lord's Day. It's my favorite day of the week every time the Lord's Day is over and I wake up Monday morning I'm like man.

I can't wait for the Lord's Day again. We got to get there. We got to get there and be with God's people and worship the Lord set aside all of the struggles and all of the worries. And all of the things that this world throws at us and to be able to focus our attention on him.

Before we start our worship officially we always pray for another local church. It's a way for us to support our brothers and sisters all over the community. But also to remind ourselves that in this room in these walls.

This isn't this isn't it this this isn't all there is. We are not the only church. We're not the only Saints gathering and so this morning. We would like to pray for harvest Harvest Baptist, I believe this is the official name and it's in Perigold you may see their new their new ish building right off of the 49 I believe coming right there into Perigold, but we want to pray for harvest Baptist this morning.

We want to pray that God would work in the hearts of their people. I want to pray that God would work in the hearts of their pastors that God would work in their midst and and Impact the community for the sake of the gospel and equip the Saints.

So if you wouldn't mind bow your heads with me, let's pray for harvest. Oh Dear Heavenly Father. We come to you this morning. Yeah, we just we just want to worship you. We long to come before you and to encourage one another to be reminded of the glorious Gospel of Jesus Christ and in the grace and mercy of the triune God.

But but father we also acknowledge we're not the only ones it's not just us. There are brothers and sisters all over this community all over this world. That are either already or getting ready to worship you on the Lord's Day.

Coming together on on this day that you have called us the first day that we've given over to God to be able to worship to be able to gather to be able to fellowship to be able to be Challenged encouraged and and prodded on into the set for the sake of the gospel and Lord.

We know that we have brothers and sisters over at harvest and perigold. And father, we just want to lift them up. We want them to know how much we deeply love them because we have perfect unity with them in the spirit.

Because we have the same Holy Spirit within us and God we love our brothers and sisters so much. We long to see you work. We long to see you mold them Lord we long for their pastors to preach the word boldly the full counsel of God that they they would stand firm and Proclaiming the truth of your word that was handed down by the Apostles.

Father I pray you give them wisdom you give them courage and discernment God. I pray that you would Just work a fire into their hearts that they may Long to serve you well God that they would be a good steward of what you've given them father I pray that that their people would be a light in that community father, I pray that that Their location where they gather.

There's nothing special about the location, but it's the people within would be a city set on a hill. And that you would work and grow and mold Bring about revival and awakening in their hearts and that would permeate the community.

We thank you for them God. We thank you for Their desire to be true to the gospel or we pray that you would continually grow them in Christ's name. Amen. Amen well, thank you for that. Let's stand for a call to worship as we officially Start our our gathering today our worship gathering today, and so those of you that are guest just so it doesn't catch you off guard.

You're gonna see here in a moment a split screen. What we do is we walk through scripture and in particularly today. It's Psalm 2 which is going to be the text of our message today. And I will read a portion and then you as the people will then read in response the next portion of that Passage and we read back and forth and the reason that we do this I remind all of our members, but I'm letting you guess No, the reason we do this is a reminder that church is not a passive Experience it is not you coming and setting and hearing others do music hearing others pray and preach.

And all that goes with it. This is a corporate involvement. This is not a passive Receiving it's a response and so we start the service off in this way. The psalmist it says the the reign of the Lord's anointed in Psalm 2 where the psalmist says Why do the nation's rage and the people's 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. I'm sorry about that that s shouldn't be there.

It was a he I don't know how that got on there. But it was there. I want to make sure you understood. It's not she it is he God the Father, right? All right. Then he will speak to them in his wrath and Terrify them in his fury saying the decree the Lord said to me you were my son today I've begotten you ask of me and I will make the nation's your heritage and the ends of the earth your Possession now therefore Oh Kings be wise Be warned.

Oh rulers of the earth serve the Lord with fear and Rejoice with trembling for his wrath is all God's people said Amen, this is the truth of God's Word. I hope it is his lit a fire in your heart to worship him this morning for he is good and and that Psalmist declares he's looking to the Messiah, right?

We're gonna hear about it this morning. Sermon kiss the son. Look to the son lest he be angry. The wrath of God is kindled by through his son Jesus Christ. So let's go to that great God and a prayer of adoration Before we sing and I want you in this moment to lay aside all of the things all the distractions and Worship.

God pray a prayer of Adoration adoring God this morning in your hearts as we pray out loud. To to set us into this mode to be able to sing and sing out the praise of of our great God. Dear Heavenly Father.

We come to you once again God we humbly bow before you for we are frail and we are weak, but you you are mighty. You are good. You are great Lord you you break the the the powers of this world with a rod of iron and you dash them into pieces.

The Kings and the rulers and the wise of this world that They must be warned. They must hear that that the wise one the good one the King the Almighty. He is the one that is worthy of glory and praise and honor.

Not them those that try and seek it for themselves even ourselves try to seek it. Oh God. But you you alone are worthy of praise. Lord I pray this morning that as we as we gather as we as we hear from your word as we sing these truths.

God, I pray that that our hearts would be Aflame with this this understanding of of the glorious greatness of the Almighty Creator King of the universe. Or that we would walk away from here having a greater Understanding and a greater fear and a greater love for you because you are worthy of all.

We thank you in Christ's name.

Psalm 110 and the Holiness of God

Majesty a scribe in.

Scripture reading this more psalmist as I said it my right hand and it's the psalm of David Says the Lord says to my Lord said it my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool. The Lord sends forth from Zion your mighty scepter rule in the midst of your enemies.

Your people will offer themselves freely on the day of your power and holy garments. From the womb of the morning the dew of your youth will be yours. The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind. You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.

The Lord is at your right hand. He will shatter Kings on the day of his wrath. He will execute judgment among the nations Filling them with corpses. He will shatter chiefs over the over the wide earth.

He will drink from the brook by the way, therefore he will lift up his head. This is the God that we serve. Amen. He demands holiness. Demands perfection to be holy. I am holy. This is what God? requires.

He cannot tolerate even the smallest ounce of sin in his presence and He will dash the the the wicked upon the rock and he will pour his wrath out upon them. And here's the thing this morning if you and I are in Christ, we were once vessels of wrath, right.

We were headed towards destruction. But we have been brought in by the grace of Christ. And so that's again why we worship this morning while we gather we can worship in spirit and truth because of that.

But let's be honest our flesh still wars against us, doesn't it? Our flesh still draws us back to the old man. Our flesh still still fights against us, right? The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.

They're constantly battling this and so that's why every Sunday We've been trying to do a time of prayer of confession and assurance an Acknowledgement before God not that we're making penance for our sins by a confession.

That's not what this is about. This is Acknowledging our sin before God as we're called to do but then resting in the great assurance. That is in Christ that he has paid for those sins. Amen once for all We are not Bearing our own righteousness.

That righteousness belongs to Christ and has been an imparted imputed to you if you are in Christ this morning. So let's pray a prayer of confession and assurance Lord. See from your word your glorious holiness.

We see from your law your perfection. We see that we in our actions and in our day-to-day lives. Even in this moment as we've gathered this morning. We see that we are Thoroughly and completely incapable of living up to that law and that requirement.

Lord we sin against you Lord in our thoughts and our hearts and our actions. Now we we do not live up to the great requirement of holiness that is The standard in which you demand we fall short. I do the things I don't want to do and I don't do the things I want to do.

But who will deliver me from this wretched flesh and sometimes it can become overwhelming to us God I'm so short. I can't I can't live up to that and then we're reminded that You're acknowledging that we can't you know, we can't and so you made a way for us.

You sent the one that could Jesus Christ our Savior the second person of the Godhead became flesh became like the creature that that he himself created in order to fulfill that perfect law so that we We can be made right and now Lord as we come into your presence and worship and in song.

We know that that our flesh is so tainted with sin even today God. But but then we know that our Savior has already paid for it and that his perfect righteousness is is Given to us. It's clothes us. And so we stand in great assurance.

We can come before you boldly we are like children coming into the the throne room of the king in the middle of the night asking for a glass of water because We can because we're your children. Because we are now adopted and brought in through the very righteousness of Christ.

Oh Lord, I pray that that we would constantly be reminded of this this glorious truth. That we would not lose sight of the gospel of Jesus Christ is nothing that I do. I have no righteousness none whatsoever.

Only Christ is not me, but Christ who lives in me. We thank you for that that assurance.

Christ.

Trust in you in the silence. Stand up on your.

My.

Solid rock in my Salvation my steadfast. Oh, it won't be shaking my soul. My soul. Yes My soul.

Mercy.

Unreasonable.

Baptism, Justification by Faith, and Caleb Bower's Testimony

I want to share a few words about the method of salvation and the importance of baptism. The apostle Paul says in Ephesians chapter 2, for by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing.

It is the gift of God, not a result of works, so no one may boast. Now there's so many places in scripture that tell us how to be saved. Look to King Jesus in faith, not anything that you can accomplish or do, your works.

And so what we have to understand is justification. Us being declared right before God is by faith, not a faith that works a particular action and then you're made right before God. This is why it's so important to understand what the scripture says in relation to baptism.

Baptism is a ceremony that signifies that a person is already declared right before God and is a disciple seeking to obey all that God has commanded us to do. And so there's so many wonderful verses about baptism.

This is declaring to the world, Caleb, your faith, saying I am serious about following King Jesus and I want all of you to hold me accountable to that. And so when we look at Ephesians 2, 8 and 9, when it says not a result of works, some people say, well then why should we even get baptized?

And I'm going to say, we got to keep reading. For we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works. Does that make sense? This is a work of obedience to King Jesus and we're saying, look, the rest of my life is to give you glory and I want to live that faith out so the watching world says, why is Caleb different?

And he says, oh, I'm different because of the work that God has already done in my life and I'm a part of a church family that holds me accountable. The reason why we express this so deeply is there's so many groups of people, especially in our community here in Jonesboro, the church of Christ believe that your sins are not remitted and forgiven until you come up out of the water and we're saying that is a false gospel.

That is a, that is, you are not saved by your work and your participation in any way. King Jesus did all the obedience that was perfect and you're putting your faith in Him, not in yourself. So we've talked about these things.

So exciting. In fact, Caleb has prepared a speech to share with you all. Is that right? All right. Let's hear it.

Hey, everybody. I'm glad that you could come on this special day. I did just get a break, so if I stutter more, just forgive me. For those of you that don't know me, I'm Caleb Bowers and I'm 15 years old.

I'm going to tell you how I was saved and the struggles that I had with it. It started several years ago in a small church in my hometown. I saw other people getting baptized and was happy for them and thought I was saved, but I wasn't.

A few months later, we started coming to 12 -5. We've been here now for about two and a half years. When we first started coming here, I noticed that the word started to matter more to me and I wanted to learn more than I ever did.

So I talked to Pastor Jeremiah several times during this past year and at one point I had an emotional breakdown in my room and kept thinking over and over that I am a sinner, I am a sinner, and that Jesus saved me from the wrath I could not escape from.

I don't know if I was saved then or later. A few months later, I started to get concerned with my salvation and nervous about if I was going to heaven or hell and why I didn't feel the full value of what Jesus did for me on the cross.

After this, I talked to Pastor Jeremiah and I felt like that I was saved, but that I was missing something. So I watched and listened to some sermons and audiobooks, talked to Pastor Jeremiah again, and most importantly, continued praying and reading the word.

And then it hit me. I would never have a perfect faith. None of us would have a perfect faith. But it is that by grace alone, through faith alone, that the Lord my God has saved me. After I realized that, I was more aware of sin in my life and quicker to repent.

I had a greater desire to know the Lord and His word. The Bible verse that inspired me the most is 1 Peter 1, verses 3 -9.

Let's stand and sing this song. I've been, I've been a tempter, what have you blessed us with to come and gather together.

And sing these praises to you. Lord, what an awesome day to have Brother Caleb baptize this morning, Lord. It just makes it all that much better. So grateful that you will hold me fast. Lord, I pray this morning, Lord, as we pass around these offering plates, Lord, I pray that you would bless this offering.

Lord, we love you this morning, we pray, Lord. I pray that you would just be with the remainder of this service, Lord. I pray that you would give Pastor Keith the words to speak this morning, Lord. Lord, I pray that you would just clear out distractions this morning, Lord, and open our hearts and minds, Lord, so we may take your word in.

Lord, we love you. We praise you. Ask all these things in your precious holy name, in Jesus' name, I pray, amen.

I was back there running sound, and I was talking to my son when Caleb got finished,.

And I said, I've got to follow that. Praise the Lord. I mean, it's a youth. I thank Jeremiah for what he teaches the youth every, every week. It was several weeks ago, probably four or five, Nathan, when you came to me and I was slotted in to preach, and you said that I could, you know, if I wanted to, I could get away from Ephesians, and I could pick, you know, another verse or something, and I told you I'd pray about it.

And that was also the same time that they had scheduled me being installed as an elder in this church. And so I had several members come and talk to me and ask me, how can I pray for you, Keith? And I said, well, you know, what does an elder need the most?

They need wisdom, and they need discernment. And so it came a little bit later. I told Nathan, yes, the Lord's kind of been speaking to me through the Psalms, and I think I would like to go to the Old Testament and preach out of that.

And he said, okay. And so several weeks later, we were planning all the different services, and we looked, and lo and behold, if I would have stayed in Ephesians, this would have been the week for the verse to be preached on, was wives be submissive to your husband.

So thank the Lord for wisdom and discernment. Anyways, I'll be in second Psalm today. If you don't know, you can go ahead and turn there in your Bible if you want to. And you know, I hope many, and I'm sure do, read the Psalms.

And when you read them, you'll notice that the Psalms actually have different kind of categories or types of Psalms. There's laments, there's hymns of praise, hymns of thanksgiving, hymns celebrating God's.

Law.

There's Psalms of wisdom, royal Psalms, historical Psalms, prophetic Psalms, and messianic Psalms. And as you're looking at two, Psalm number two, this was not the second Psalm written, nor was the first Psalm the first Psalm written.

Actually, the oldest Psalm, which is the 90th, was written in Moses around 1400 BC. And the newest Psalm was written, and it's the 126th, was written about 450 BC. So it took close to a thousand years for the book of Psalms, and some people call that the Psalter, to actually come together as a book.

So it's that old and took that long. Well, when you look at Psalm two and you look over at Psalm one, these are often referred to as a couplet. They often are referred to two Psalms that actually go together.

They're considered the gatekeepers or the twin pillars of the book of Psalms. Some theologians feel that it's actually the preface to Psalms. And when you read it and you study it, you'll see why. It opens up the whole gate of Psalms to us.

You know, Psalm one begins with, blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked. And then Psalm two, if you look at the ending, it says, blessed are all who take refuge in him. So you have this couplet that's actually bracketed by blessing.

And you can see there are different topics in both that mirror each other. And we'll talk a little bit about that today. Well, I want to read Psalm two again, even though we have already. And so we can kind of get a feel of where we're going today.

It says, why do the nations rage and the people's 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 to pieces like a potter's vessel.

Now, therefore, O kings, be wise, be warned. Serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the son. Least he be angry with you and perish in the way. For his wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are all who take refuge in him.

So this Psalm here is actually credited to King David along with 74 others. And actually, the New Testament gives testament to that. In Acts 4 .25, it states, who through the mouth of our father David, your servant, said by the Holy Spirit, why did the Gentiles rage and the people's plot in vain?

So we know for sure who wrote that because of what the testimony that they left to us in the New Testament. Another interesting fact about Psalms 2, it is one of the most quoted and cited Psalms in the New Testament.

You will find it in Acts 4 and 13. We just read from 4. Hebrews 1 and Hebrews 5, Revelation 2, 12, and 19. And it is alluded to in Revelation 1. So I talked about that there's different types or categories of Psalms.

And often, Psalms actually have multi-categories. And this one is no different. This is actually considered a royal Psalm because it speaks of David and thrones. This is a messianic Psalm because without a doubt, it speaks about Christ.

And it's also a prophetic Psalm because it speaks about, I will do this, what the Lord is going to do. You know, when David sat down to write his Psalm, no one can doubt that he was writing about his own ascension to the throne in Israel and how many plotted against him.

That's what it talks about in the first part. It was not only the Jews and the Gentiles and the nations around him, but even his own family plotted against him and the nation of Israel. But today, I want to focus primarily on the main meaning, what many theologians feel the main meaning of this Psalm is, and that's the primacy of Messiah, Jesus Christ.

So I'm approaching it mainly as a messianic Psalm. And you know that David prophesied concerning Christ is clearly revealed from the fact that he knew his own kingdom was merely a shadow of the kingdom to come.

That this Psalm, what he says in here, is actually speaking of the future kingdom and the future anointed one. It even says the kings of the earth set themselves and their rulers take counsel together against the Lord, against his anointing, his anointed one.

And if you'll notice, anointed is actually capitalized, which signifies deity. Also, if you go back to the Hebrew, the word for anointed is Meshaic. And actually, that's where we get the word Messiah from.

So without a doubt, David was talking about the Messiah. But today, as I speak from this Psalm, I want us to see several things. First, I want us to see the cosmic conflict between darkness and light.

I want us to see the conflict between heaven and hell that has raged throughout the Bible all the way back to Genesis 3. I want us to see the gospel truth played out in this Psalm. I want us to see the wickedness and the hate of human depravity.

I want us to see the sovereignty and the power of Yahweh Sabaoth, the Lord of hosts. I want us to see the preeminence of Jesus Christ. And I want us to see the blessings of having faith in the Messiah, the Son of the living God.

So this Psalm is very unique because it's actually divided into four sections. There's four different sections, or scenes, like an act of a play. And each section comprises of three verses. In each scene, our section has its own actor that speaks.

In the first scene, verses 1 through 3, the nations step forth and speak. In the second scene, verses 4 through 6, it is God sitting on his throne who will speak. In the third scene, verses 7 through 9, the Messiah, Jesus Christ, will tell us of the decree.

He will speak. And then in scene 4, the final scene, the Holy Spirit steps forth and speaks. And I pray that he speaks to your heart today. So scene number one, the nations are exposing their rejection of God.

It says, 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 his anointed saying, let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us.

So what Psalms 2 is starting out telling us is there's a vast conspiracy against God and his son, Jesus Christ. It's a description of the hatred that is rampant in human nature, that is against God, that is against Christ, the son of God.

These forces, the kings, the rulers, the peoples, they are set in opposition to God's purpose. They want to reject, oppose, challenge. They want to hate, confront, and even deny the sovereignty of God.

So we see this even in today's society, a growing disdain for Christianity, for all things religious that attain to God and his son. I mean, you can see it in everywhere that you go. You can see it in the media.

You can see it in the news. But even so, the culture we live in today is so bad. It is so seeped into depravity and sin and all manifestations of evil. In reality, it's no different than the culture in David's time or the time of Jesus Christ.

We do not have a monopoly on sin in the time where we live. I mean, if you go back and you study in the Old Testament of David's time, even through the New Testament, you see them talking about all the high places where the idols are worshipped, all these false gods that they're worshipping, the sacrifices that are taking place, even infants being sacrificed on the altar.

And you see many instances of the worship of God through sexual immorality. It mirrors what we see today in our own place. Well, David here is beginning his psalm abruptly with an interrogation. He is neither surprised or angry, but he is demanding why.

Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? And I really like how the King James version translates this. It says, why do the heathen rage? Not just the nations, but the heathen within those nations.

And the people imagine a vain thing. Well, if you were here about two or three months ago, I preached out of a section of Ephesians, and Paul kind of gives us the answer to the question David is asking in Ephesians 4.

It says, now I say this and testify to the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do in the futility of their mind. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to their hardness of heart.

They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. So what he's talking about is the reasons why they're raging is because there's a defect in their nature, in their mind.

And that is because they are born in sin. Paul uses the word futility, the futility of their minds. And it's the same as this word vain or vanity is. It refers to a mind that fails to produce a desired result.

A mind that can never succeed, which is useless or amounts to nothing is the definition for it. This is the mind of the lost. This is the mind of the natural man. It points to total inability. It points to total depravity.

This type of mind leads the heathen to want to assert their own authority instead of God's authority, to embrace their own irrational thoughts, to determine their own feeble mind what is the truth and what is not, to live out their own morality based on their own wicked desires, to breathe free of all restraints and set themselves up as God.

They refuse to believe or have faith and submit, humble themselves. And as a result, vain thinking causes the heathen to rage. One pretty famous theologian said, the heathen are going to heat. So Psalm 14 tells us about this.

The fool says in his heart, there is no God. They are corrupt. They do abominable deeds. There is none, none who does good. The Lord looks down from heaven on the children of man to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God.

They have all turned aside. Together they have become corrupt. There is none who does good, not even one. And this is where Paul in Romans 3, 9, he pulls from this verse when he's talking about the depravity of man, the depravity of the natural man.

And we see that the heathen rage. And if you watch the news, even in a small amount, you can see the heathen rage on a regular basis. I mean, praise the Lord, I don't watch it. But occasionally it comes across in some things that I do watch.

If you've ever seen The View, you can see the heathen rage every day. I mean, I'm not picking on the women, but I mean, they go off. And what are they going off on? Morality, God's standard, Christianity.

You know, I was thinking back when I read this section, not too long ago, you know, Roe versus Wade was turned over. And boy, was there a march on Washington, D .C. at the mall. All the usual actors and actresses and senators and House of Representative members, you know, the usual cast of characters were there.

And they were in a face-red spitting rage over this, over life. The heathen rage against God and his anointed. And it goes on to say, they imagine or plot a vain thing. The kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and his anointed.

So, I mean, we see that today and we've talked about it. In David's reign, when you study his life, you can see the same thing. How the nations around him, the heathen, and we've already talked about the Jews themselves, were in a rage against the Lord and anointed, trying to keep him from the throne.

Even his own people were against him. But mainly, this is talking about in Jesus's time, when he was on earth. And the first century church points this out. Herod, Pilate, the Romans, the Gentiles, the Jews, they all conspired together to take Jesus's life.