THE LORDS WILL, WILL ENDURE (Psalm 2)

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 newish 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 and 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 or we long for their pastors to preach the word boldly the full counsel of God that they they would

Stand firm and in 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 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

Lord. 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 guests 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

I Will tell of 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

You shall 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 quickly kindled A Man 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 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 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

God 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. Amen Creatures of God Your voice

Oh Praise praise the

Father And praise the spirit

Choice Oh Oh Oh But you know the song all hail the power of Jesus Power of Jesus name

You'll die Bring forth the

Seed of Israel's race ♪

Who saved you by His grace and crowned Him Lord of all ♪ ♪

Hail Him who saved you by His grace and crowned

Him Lord of all ♪

So let every kindred and every kindred and every tribe ♪

On this terrestrial ball ♪ To Him all majesty ascribe and crown

Him Lord of all ♪ ♪

To Him all majesty ascribe and crown

Him Lord of all ♪ ♪

To Him all majesty ascribe and crown

Him Lord of all ♪

Lord of all, let's go to our scripture reading this morning which is the 110th

Psalm. The psalmist says, set at my right hand, and this is the Psalm of David.

It says, the Lord says to my Lord, set at 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 in 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 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, He demands perfection. He says, be holy.

I am holy. And this is what God requires. He cannot tolerate even the smallest ounce of sin in His presence.

And He will dash the wicked upon the rock and He will pour

His wrath out upon them. And here's the thing, this morning, 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 fights against us, right?

The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. We'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 imparted, imputed to you if you are in Christ this morning.

So let's pray a prayer of confession and assurance. Lord, we 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,

God, 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 wanna do and I don't do the things

I want to do. Who will deliver me from this wretched flesh? And sometimes it can become overwhelming to us,

God, that I fall so short. 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 he himself created in order to fulfill that perfect law so that we can be made right.

And now, Lord, as we come into your presence and worship and in song, we know that our flesh is so tainted with sin, even today,

God, but then we know that our Savior has already paid for it and that his perfect righteousness is given to us.

It clothes us. And so we stand in great assurance. We can come before you boldly.

We are like children coming into 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 we would constantly be reminded of this glorious truth, that we would not lose sight of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

There's nothing that I do. I have no righteousness, none whatsoever. Only Christ.

It's not me, but Christ who lives in me. We thank you for that, that assurance.

In Christ's name, amen. ♪

With the enemy surround us ♪ ♪

And my heart grows faint within ♪ ♪ When the darkness overwhelms ♪ ♪

And my knees are pressing in ♪ ♪ I will trust in you, oh

Lord ♪ ♪ In the silence I will wait ♪ ♪

I will stand upon your Word ♪ ♪

You're my solid rock and my salvation ♪ ♪

My steadfast hope that won't be shaken ♪ ♪ My soul will wait, my soul will wait for you ♪ ♪

You're my stronghold and my shield ♪ ♪

In the midst of every threat ♪ ♪

Through the wicked and every ill ♪ ♪ They will vanish like a breath ♪ ♪

Yes, I know the outcome's sure ♪ ♪ Satan's evil plans will fail ♪ ♪

In your power I'm secure ♪ ♪ You're my comfort when

I feel forsaken ♪ ♪ My refuge and my sure foundation ♪ ♪

My soul will wait, my soul will wait for you ♪ ♪

This is love I can't explain ♪ ♪ This is mercy unreserved ♪ ♪

Through your sacrifice so great ♪ ♪

My happy sight's undeserved ♪ Sing this with me. ♪ For the battle has been won ♪ ♪

And I fear no shame or loss ♪ ♪ Now the sting of death is gone ♪ ♪

You're my solid rock and my salvation ♪ ♪

My steadfast hope and won't be shaken ♪ ♪ My soul will wait, my soul will wait for you ♪

One more time, that's all rock. ♪ You're my solid rock and my salvation ♪ ♪

My steadfast hope and won't be shaken ♪ ♪ My soul will wait, my soul will wait for you ♪

Well, today is a very exciting day. We have a baptism. A few words about, oh, you all may be seated.

I forget that part. I wanna share a few words about the method of salvation and the importance of baptism.

The apostle Paul says in Ephesians chapter two, 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, I mean, look at Ephesians two, eight, and nine when it says not a result of works. Some people say, well, then why should we even get baptized?

And I'm gonna say, we gotta 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 wanna 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, 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 braces, so if I stutter more, 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 words 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 audio books, 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 three through nine. Blessed be the God and Father, our Lord Jesus Christ.

According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope. Through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials so that the tested genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

They have not seen him, you love him. They do not now see him, you believe in him, and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, attaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

Amen. Let's stand and sing this song.

♪ I fear my faith will fail ♪ ♪ Christ will hold me fast ♪ ♪

When the tempter would prevail ♪ ♪ He will hold me fast ♪ ♪

I could never keep my hope ♪ ♪ Through life's fearful path ♪ ♪

For my love is soft and cold ♪ ♪ He must hold me fast ♪

Sing this with me. ♪ He will hold me fast ♪ ♪

He will hold me fast ♪ ♪ For my savior loves me so ♪ ♪

He will hold me fast ♪ ♪

As he saves our heads to lie ♪ ♪ Christ will hold me fast ♪ ♪

Precious in his holy sight ♪ ♪ He will hold me fast ♪ ♪

He'll not let my soul be lost ♪ ♪

His promises shall last ♪ ♪ Bought by him at such a cost ♪ ♪

He will hold me fast ♪ ♪

He will hold me fast ♪ ♪ He will hold me fast ♪ ♪

For my savior loves me so ♪ ♪ He will hold me fast ♪ ♪

Deeply in his eye ♪ ♪ Christ will hold me fast ♪ ♪

Justice has been satisfied ♪ ♪

He will hold me fast ♪ Sing this with us. ♪ Raised with him to endless life ♪ ♪

He will hold me fast ♪ ♪ Till our faith is turned to sight ♪ ♪

When he comes at last ♪ ♪

He will hold me fast ♪ ♪ For my savior loves me so ♪ ♪

He will hold me fast ♪ ♪ Hold me fast ♪ ♪

He will hold me fast ♪ ♪ For my savior loves me so ♪ ♪

He will hold me fast ♪ One more time, sing it with us. ♪ He will hold me fast ♪ ♪

He will hold me fast ♪ ♪ For my savior loves me so ♪ ♪

He will hold me fast ♪ Lord, we thank you so much,

Father. Lord, we thank you for this awesome opportunity, Father, that you've blessed us with to come and gather together and sing these praises to you,

Lord. Lord, what an awesome day to have

Brother Caleb baptized this morning, Lord. It just makes it all that much better.

So grateful that you will hold me fast, Lord. Lord, I pray this morning,

Lord, as we pass around these offering plates, Lord, 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.

We 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, lest 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 four. 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, and 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.

But 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 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 mashayek. 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 one through three, the nations step forth and speak.

In the second scene, verses four through six, it is God sitting on his throne who will speak.

In the third scene, verses seven through nine, the Messiah, Jesus Christ, will tell us of the decree.

He will speak. And then in scene four, 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 two 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 lived. I mean, if you go back and you study in the

Old Testament of David's time or even through the New Testament, you see them talking about all the high places where the idols are worshiped.

All these false gods that they're worshiping. 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 be 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 heath.

So Psalm 14 tells us about this. It says, 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 standards. 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' 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' life. In Acts 4, it talks about this. Peter and John has been released.

They go back to their friends. And it says, they lifted up their voices together against God. And they say, by the

Holy Spirit, why did the Gentiles rage in the people's plot and vain? The kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers were gathered together against the

Lord, against His Anointed. For truly in the city, there was gathered together against your holy servant

Jesus, whom you anointed and appointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the

Gentiles and the people of Israel. It's talking about the plotting against Jesus.

And when you look at these people, when you know a little bit of the history, all of these groups hated each other.

The Romans, the Gentiles, the Jews, they hated each other, but they came together for one purpose.

And that was to put our Savior to death. Well, now the heathen, they speak.

It says, let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us. And then the

NIV translation says, let us break their chains, they say, and throw off their fetters.

So in the Hebrew, these bonds, cords, chains, and fetter actually refer to the manner in which a yoke of a cart or a plow is placed on the neck of a beast of burden or an animal to do the work.

And so what this picture is they want to take off the yoke of God's lordship, not merely just reject it, but to arrogantly throw it off.

They are trying to sever the creator -creature relationship.

And you know, to the neck, I mean, sorry, the neck of the lost, to the neck of the lost, the yoke of Christ is intolerable.

But to the safe center, it's easy and light. If you would turn with me to Matthew 11, 28.

Here Jesus is saying, come to me all who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest.

Take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I am gentle and lowly in heart. You will find a rest for your souls for my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

So here we have Jesus telling us that if we come to him, we will find his yoke light and easy.

And this is the verse that we should judge ourselves by. Do we love his yoke or do we cast it away from us?

So now moving on to scene two, we have God responding to man's rebellion.

It says, 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. So now not only has the speaker shifted, but the scenery has shifted too.

In scene one, we were looking at the earth with all the heathen running around in a rage and what they believed is a lofty position.

But now we have to look up to the heavens where the Lord is seated on his throne, infinitely exalted above man.

The heathens, they've been busy moving around, taking counsel, plotting, angry, agitated, in a frenzy, in a rage to cast off God's sovereignty.

And God is merely seated in his regal splendor, confident in his purposes.

It says, he laughs. God sits on the throne in the heavens and laughs.

He holds them in derision. I mean, I want us to note the quite dignity of the one true

God. The contempt he pours out on the rulers and their raging people.

He doesn't rise up to do battle against them because he deposes them and he knows their end.

He knows how absurd and futile, how irrational their manifestations are against him.

So God laughs. He holds them in derision, which means that he mocks their feeble attempt to usurp him.

His laughter is an expression of ridicule because he knows their end.

God's will will endure. I mean, are we concerned when we see the kingdom of God on earth seem to be in decline, when churches are closing, when evil seems to be at an all -time high, when people are speaking against the

Lord, when people are mocking us and speaking against us in our church? Does that concern us?

Well, this is nothing to God. And that's what it says. This is an object of his derision, of scorn and contempt.

Psalm 37 states, the wicked plots against the righteous and gnashes their teeth at him.

But the Lord laughs at the wicked for he sees that his day is coming.

You know, I like it that it's talking about the Lord laughing. And I mean, we know the

Lord has humor. I mean, that's one of the gifts that he's given us. And we see it regularly throughout the

Bible. And one of my favorite section is, I don't know if you remember, is when the

Philistines captured the Ark of the Lord. They took the Ark of the Lord and boy, they were proud of themselves,

Danny. I'm sure they were thumping their chest. We whooped those Jews. And they take it back and they put the

Ark of the Lord in the temple of Dagon. Set it in there. And so they go on and they go to bed.

And so they come back the next morning sure to gloat over the Ark of the Lord. And the statue of Dagon's on its face before the

Ark of the Lord. So they dust Dagon off and I'm sure they're thinking, maybe it was an earthquake or something.

And they put him back up on his pedestal. They go back to their houses. They come back the next day.

And not only is Dagon laying on his face, but his head and his hands have been lopped off and are laying in the threshold of the door.

It's like the Lord said, yeah, you think you're something. Let me show you.

But I think my favorite is Elijah on Mount Carmel. I mean, it's hard to read that and not laugh at these people.

Here we have Elijah, which thinks he's the only prophet left, facing off against the prophets of Baal of which there are 450 and they're going to have a showdown.

Whose Lord, whose God is the one true God? So they both, I'm going to try to shorten this, they both take a cow and they cut it up into pieces.

They build a bonfire. They put the cow on it. And the prophets of Baal go first.

They're going to pray to the Lord, their Lord, Baal, and ask him to respond with fire.

And so they're dancing around, doing all these manifestations. They even get to the point where they're beating on themselves.

And oh, Elijah's sitting over there. And he's saying, wait, y 'all might need to speak louder. You know, maybe your

God is in the bathroom. Maybe he's on vacation. You know, maybe he's asleep.

And I think this might be one of the earliest examples of trash talking we have.

It's actually in the Bible. But so anyways, they get through, nothing happens. So Elijah goes and rebuilds the altar, takes some stones, seven for the tribes,

I mean seven stones. And then he takes four jugs of water and he goes and pours it on the wood that he's built his bonfire from, or his pyre.

And he does this three different times. It's like he's saying, yeah, my

God's gonna do it and he's gonna have one hand tied behind his back. So it's enough water where it actually fills a trench that's around this fire.

He prays to the Lord and poof, fire comes from heaven and it's gone.

And you know, to us these instances, they have humor. But to the heathen who rage and the people who plot in vain, it's a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the

Lord. Psalm 33 says, let all the earth fear the Lord. Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him.

For he spoke and it came to be. He commanded and it stood firm.

The Lord brings the counsel of the nations to nothing. He frustrates the plans of the people.

The counsel of the Lord stands forever. The plans of his heart to all generations.

The Lord's will will endure. So now in verse five, it says, then he will speak to them in his wrath and terrify them in his fury, saying.

Now notice, he's not really speaking now. He's using his wrath and his fury to speak to them.

At the moment when they think their power is the highest, when they least expect it, their fury is the most violent.

God will speak through his actions of wrath and fury. It is nothing for God to destroy his foes.

I mean, think back at Pharaoh. He was in the height of his power. All the chariots he had.

All the men. All the horses at his disposal. And he sought to eradicate

God's chosen people by driving them to the sea. What happened to him?

What happened to his power? It drowned in that same sea he was going to use to kill

God's people. There was a theologian back in the mid -1800s named William Plumer.

And he wrote concerning this. He said, Of the 30

Roman emperors, governors of provinces, and others high in office who distinguished themselves by their zeal and bitterness in persecuting the early

Christians, one became deranged after some atrocious cruelty. One was slain by his son.

One became blind. The eyes of one started out of his head.

I think that means popped. One was drowned. One was strangled. One died in a miserable captivity.

One fell dead in a manner that will not bear repeating. One died of so loathsome a disease that the physicians were put to death because the soldiers could not abide the stench that filled the room.

Two committed suicide. A third attempted it but had to call for help. Five were assassinated by their own people.

Five others died the most miserable and excruciating deaths, several of them having an untold complication of diseases.

Eight were killed in battle after being taken prisoner. And among these was

Julian the Apostate. In the days of his prosperity, he is said to have pointed his dagger to heaven, defying the

Son of God, whom he commonly called the Galilean. But when he was wounded in battle and saw that it was all over for him, he gathered up his clotted blood, threw it into the air, exclaiming,

Thou hast conquered, thou Galilean. Psalm 9 says,

You have rebuked the nations. You have made the wicked perish. You have blotted out their name forever and ever.

The enemy came to an end in everlasting ruins. Their cities you rooted out, yet the very memory of them has perished.

But the Lord sits enthroned forever. These next two verses, they're short, and I think this really sums it all up.

It's kind of like to me a mic drop moment. Revelation 6 .17, For the great day of their wrath has come.

Who can stand? Revelation 14 .11, In the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever.

God's will will endure. So now the most high, omnipotent, one true

God speaks. He says, As for me, I have set my king on Zion, my holy hill.

So this I here is emphatic. It's introducing the word of God's eternal decree, which we'll talk a little bit more about in a minute.

And this decree was to appoint to the throne the Davidic ruler who would bring the nations into submission.

Despite all their gatherings, plotting, their malice and hate, their wisdom of counsel, their trickery of the law givers,

God says yet, I have set my king on Zion. This is monumental.

What he's saying here, I hope you get it. What God is saying is, I have already done what the enemy is trying to prevent.

God's anointed has been appointed before time began. It was determined. It came to be.

Victory was assured. The kingdom of God has come.

It has been stamped on this earth until the end of time when all else shall pass away and the king of kings will be with his elect.

His will is done. All man can do is rage and fret and vain.

Thy walls are strengthened at the gates. A guard of heavenly warriors waits nor shall thy deep foundations move fixed on his counsels and his love.

Thy foes in vain designs enrage. Against his throne in vain they rage like rising waves and angry roar that dash and die upon the shore.

That is what will happen to all of man's raging. It will die upon the shore.

We can be confident. We can have assurance. We can know that our Lord reigns and victory has been given to him.

He will be king of kings over all who oppose him.

God's will will endure. So now we come to scene three.

Jesus will be declaring his messianic rule. He says,

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 a potter's vessel.

So God has laughed. He's derided the ragings and the counsel of the wicked and now

Christ the anointed comes forward as the risen Redeemer claiming his position as the son of God by power by the resurrection of the dead.

He says, I will tell of the decree. The Lord said to me, You are my son.

Today I have begotten you. So this eternal decree that he's talking about.

Paul talks about it in Titus 1 too when he tells us he's talking about eternal life. It says,

In the hope of eternal life which God who never lies promised before the ages began.

He's talking about this eternal decree that was taking place before the ages began.

This decree was not something that was made at a point in time. It was made in eternity past before there was any beginning before there was any time before the foundations of the earth.

It wasn't something that was done suddenly. It was not a trial. It was not an experiment.

But the result of the counsels of the divine wisdom and the determinations of the divine will.

Let me repeat that because it's talking about divinity here. The trinity. The result of the counsels of the divine wisdom and determinations of the divine will.

This decree cannot be altered. It came from the counsel. The federal transaction between the

Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit concerning man's redemption.

I was trying to wrap my mind around this and I read a quote from John Owen. And if you've ever read him he's a

Puritan and he goes deep. And it just... I mean, when I read it kind of smoke came out of my ears,

Nathan. I mean, it was just... It was so deep. And this is what he says concerning this counsels of the divine wisdom and the determinations of the divine will.

It says, this was the infinite simplicity of their...

That's the trinity. Nature and understanding and comprehending all things in one single act of the mind.

My ways are above your ways. My thoughts above your thoughts.

Infinite simplicity of their nature and understanding and comprehending everything.

Everything since the beginning of time to the end. They comprehended that in one single act of the mind.

He says, you are my son, the Lord says. And being the son, Jesus is the heir of all things.

And as the father made the heavens and the earth by him, it's easy to understand why the son governs them.

It tells us in the Bible he's the eternal wisdom. He's the eternal truth. He's the eternal word.

If God says unto him as it states here, you are my son, then it behooves each of us to say, thou art my

Lord, my sovereign. Next it says one of the most hotly debated verses in this psalm and even in the

Bible. It says, I have begotten you. It says that, you know, it's in the...

Danny in John 3 .16 in the King James Version. It talks about he gave his only begotten son.

So it uses this word again. And I'm gonna tell you first what it does not mean. It does not mean that Jesus was brought into being.

It does not mean that the son of God was created. Or that he had origin. Or that there was a beginning in time.

It can't mean this. There's a whole host of scripture that speaks against it.

And I think the red letter verse is in John 1 .1 where it says, In the beginning was the word.

The word was with God. And the word was God. And John even doubles down on that in verse 2.

He was in the beginning with God. Now Charles Spurgeon commented on this.

And I call him the king of metaphors. He said, Many a good man has shipwrecked their ships in the stormy seas of this mystery.

Why then should we in our tiny skiffs try to sail the same seas?

And I contemplated on that and I was thinking what exactly is he saying? And I believe what came to me is he's saying,

Trust God and move on. And so that's what I'm gonna do. In verse 8 and 9 it says,

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 a potter's vessel.

So this eternal decree set forth the purpose of the triune God that the anointed, the son would not only be redeemer but he'd also have the rights as king.

The power to conquer his enemies. Yes, we're talking about the Lord Jesus Christ who most think is only love.

But here we have Jesus Christ being given a rod of iron in order to break the rebellious nations who boast in their strength.

That the rod is made of iron is representative of how weighty it is.

How severe it's gonna be. How effectual the result will be.

It will break them into a thousand slivers. Psalm 110, which was read earlier in the service says,

The Lord says to my Lord sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool.

The Lord sends forth from Zion your mighty scepter. Rule in their midst of your enemies.

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 the kings on the day of his wrath.

He will execute judgment amongst the nations. Filling them with corpses.

He will shatter chiefs over the wide earth. The Lord has sworn and he will not change his mind.

His will endures forever. This brings us to the final scene.

Here the Holy Spirit is stepping forth. The Holy Spirit is prompting wisdom.

It says, 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.

So the Hebrew word here for therefore is used throughout wisdom literature.

It's an exhortation to wisdom. Have wisdom is what he is saying.

So in this scene the rulers, the kings, the peoples, the heathen are called to be wise.

To be warned. To receive instruction. They are called to conform their minds to the mind of Christ.

They are called to submit their will to the will of God and to have a new heart crafted by the

Holy Spirit. But how are we to gain this wisdom? How are they to have this ability?

The heart. The will to heed the warning. How can they become able to serve the

Lord with fear and to rejoice with trembling? Well he gives us the answer.

Kiss the Son. That's what he says. That was a dramatic pause.

In ancient times, what this is talking about in ancient times when a king was conquered he was hauled into the presence of the conquering king and thrown down to his knees.

His life hung in the balance. If he was to show pride it would most likely kill him.

It would be an excruciating death. But if he humbled himself, if he showed humility in front of the conquering king then he would have life.

He would live. He was required to submit himself to the new sovereign by bowing low and kissing his feet.

So that's where this phrase comes from. Kiss the Son. It's an act of humility before the sovereignty of the

Son of God. That's what the Holy Spirit is talking about. Now I want to go back to verse 8 just briefly because I left something out.

It says, Ask of me and I will make the nations your heritage and the ends of the earth your possession.

In the King James Version it says, Ask of me and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession.

So what this is talking about this is the same heathen that in scene one was raging against God and is anointed.

Some of these very same heathen or sinners are going to become

Christ's inheritance. They will become the adopted sons of God.

Acts 15, 14 tells us God first visited the Gentiles. These are the same

Gentiles I was talking about and Paul is talking about in Ephesians. You remember the futility of their minds?

To take from them a people for his name. They were to become his inheritance.

His heritage. But first Christ had to redeem them. He had to go to the cross and offer himself as a perfect sacrifice for their sin.

See, Jesus tells us about his accomplishing the Father's will in John 10.

It says, Just as the Father knows me, I know the Father. I lay down my life for the sheep.

No one takes it from me. I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down.

I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my

Father. The amazing fact here is in this section is that the elect those who are saved those who know

God as their Lord and Savior the very throne that they opposed they now share it.

Isn't that amazing? What God has done? And this is what the Holy Spirit is prompting in this verse.

Be wise and kiss the Son. Humble yourself before him and be blessed lest you perish.

So there's two key words I want to point out in this section as we close. I want us to understand this have a really good grasp on what these two words mean.

The first one is be wise or have wisdom. The second one is in the very last phrase is blessed are those who have refuge.

And here I want to talk about refuge for a second. So in the Hebrew wisdom talks about the capacity of your mind.

It involves not only knowledge but the ability to direct the mind towards a full understanding of human life.

So you can understand things that you normally couldn't. It talks about a mind that has the ability to understand moral things.

Spiritual things. Wisdom is a special capacity for full human living.

It is something that can be acquired but not on our own accord.

So again how is this wisdom to be acquired? Well Proverbs 2 tells us it says for the

Lord gives wisdom. From his mouth comes knowledge and understanding.

He stores up sound wisdom for the upright. He is a shield to those who walk in integrity.

Guarding the paths of justice and watching over the way of his saints. Then you will understand righteousness and justice and equity.

Every good path for wisdom will come into your heart and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul.

So how do we acquire this wisdom? It is the grace of God. That he gives us this wisdom.

The Lord gives wisdom. He gives knowledge. He gives understanding. These three things they are intertwined and they go together.

You have wisdom. You have knowledge. You have understanding. This gives you the ability to understand righteousness and justice and equity.

1 Corinthians 2, 12, and 13 echoes this out of the New Testament. Now we have received not the spirit of this world, but the spirit who is from God.

That we might understand the things freely given to us by God. And we impart this in words.

Not taught by human wisdom, but taught by the spirit. Interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual.

So we're saying, what he's saying here is it is the Holy Spirit from God. God's grace that gives us this wisdom.

It is the Holy Spirit working in us that allows us to have wisdom and understanding and knowledge about spiritual things.

See the truth is this spiritual wisdom that it's talking about, that the Holy Spirit teaches leads to the serving of the

Lord with fear. It leads to rejoicing with trembling and kissing the

Son in humility. It is not something the natural man is born with.

He is born in sin. His futile mind does not have the capacity to understand this.

1 Corinthians 2, 14 tells us this. The natural person does not accept the things of the

Spirit of God for they are folly to him. He doesn't have wisdom.

He doesn't understand. It says, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.

So the second word I want to talk about is refuge. When it says how blessed is the man who takes refuge in him.

The Hebrew word here that is used for refuge literally means to flee to, to hope in, and to trust in.

And of course this brings me to Hebrews 11, 1. The assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

You cannot have faith without this wisdom, without this understanding, without this knowledge, which is a gift of God.

It is grace. It is by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.

See I told you it was going to be hard to come behind him. And this wasn't planned I tell you.

But I would be remiss if I didn't point out the results of not heeding the

Holy Spirit's warning. It tells us in the first part of verse 12. The Holy Spirit points out the outcome of the kings, of the people who show pride and do not humble themselves.

Who do not kiss the sun. It says kiss the sun lest he be angry and you perish in the way for his wrath is quickly kindled.

So I have four questions to begin with today. And they all concern the work of the

Holy Spirit. And it's mainly pointed to those here today that they may not know the

Lord as their Savior. Or who do not know the Savior, who has not humbled themselves, who have not kissed the sun.

The first one is has the Holy Spirit convicted you of the sin that is in your life?

The second question is has the Holy Spirit given you understanding and wisdom in the knowledge of Jesus Christ and what he did on the cross so that our sin can be forgiven?

The third one, has the Holy Spirit enabled you by faith to embrace

Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior? And then again, echoing what

I've already said, do you know that you have been saved by grace alone, through faith alone, and by Christ alone?

Do you answer all these questions? Yes, I have instructions. It's not to say a prayer. It's not to walk the aisle.

It's not to raise your hand. But if this has transpired in your heart, and you have not talked to anyone about these things, then

I am asking you, I am pleading with you, to come and discuss this with one of the elders of this church,

Pastor Jeremiah, Pastor Nathan, or myself. We're not going to save you, but what we're going to try to do is give you understanding.

Last week, Nathan preached on the value of eldership, and one of the main responsibilities he told us was that it's the responsibility of the elders to identify the sanctifying work of the

Holy Spirit in your life, and that's what we want to help you with. Let's pray.

Father, we're just so thankful for this opportunity. Hey, you've crafted this whole service to give you honor and praise and glory, to be an exhibition, to be a picture of what you have done for us.

We got to sing your praises, to read and recite your word.

We got to witness a baptism, the picture of salvation, and then we got to discuss your word.

I just thank you so much for this opportunity, and pray for your hand to be upon this church, and Christ Jesus our

Lord. Amen. What a great word. Thank you,

Brother Keith, and in light of this, as we do every single week, we go as a family to the table.

There's tables on both sides here. You have wine and bread. They're representing the blood and body of our great

Savior that has saved us, but I want to give a warning before we go to this.

I want to make sure that we search our hearts, that we evaluate our lives in preparation to come to the table.

Kissing the Son isn't a one -time act, and now you're just you're good, and you can go on then rejecting the

Son. It doesn't work like that. You can't just kiss the Son and then go on living a life of rejection to His Lordship.

That proves that you never truly kissed the Son. You never truly understood. You never truly were submitted to Christ and His Lordship and saw

Him as your Savior. If you are a person that is not living a life in light of obedience to King Jesus, then my encouragement first and foremost is don't come to this table.

This is not for you. The Apostle Paul warned to the church in Corinth, he said, some of you are sick and some of you have even died for coming to this table in an unworthy manner.

But I do want to say that this table is not penance. This is not your moment to just get right with the

Lord. If you are in Christ and the fruit of that, the Holy Spirit within you is you're living as if Jesus truly is

King. You're an active member of a true church. What I mean by that is a true biblical church.

I don't mean like a person from a Jehovah's Witness church can't come to this table. This isn't for them.

A person from a Mormon church can't come to this table. This isn't for them. A person that's a part of a Oneness Pentecostal church cannot come to this table.

It is not for them. A person from Church of Christ is not welcome to this table because it is not for them.

Because those groups deny the gospel of Jesus Christ. That it is Christ alone by faith alone.

Right? This table is not for the unbeliever. This table is for those who understand and King Jesus is truly their

Lord. The true King. And so I want us to take a moment and pray and evaluate before we come to this table.

If we know that you are not an active participating member of a healthy, true biblical gospel church, we will stop you from coming to this table.

That's how important this is. It's the elder's job to guard this table. Because this is a representation of visual outworking of what

Christ has done in your heart. You're acknowledging that I am in Christ and He is in me by partaking of these elements.

Amen? Amen. This is very, very important.

And so we encourage you. Let's pray now that God will be honored. Pastor Jeremiah will be over here. I will be on this side.

If you need someone to pray with, we are here. Just as Brother Keith had mentioned, we are here to pray with you.

If you have questions about what I just said, come and speak with me. But be cautious.

We must help guard you. But we also want to tell the saints, hey, you come freely.

If you are in Christ and you are obedient to King Jesus, this table is for you. Come freely knowing that Christ has paid for you once for all.

Amen? Let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you for your truth.

We thank you for the gospel of Jesus Christ. Lord, we thank you that you have paid for our sins once for all.

That we don't have to be baptized in order to be made right with you. That we don't have to read our

Bibles in order to be made right with you. We don't have to pray in order to be right with you. You have paid for our sins if we have trusted in the finished work of Christ.

But when we do trust in you, we have been made a new creature. Meaning that we've been given now a desire to obey you.

Just as our brother Caleb did this morning in obedience and baptism. It's an act of obedience because he has a changed heart.

He wants to obey King Jesus and that's why we want to come to this table. You told us to do this ordinance until you return as a reminder of the blood that was spilled on our behalf, of the body that was given over for us.

Lord, I pray that you would be honored in our worship. Lord, guard us. Allow us to partake and worship you through this ordinance in spirit and in truth.