Psalm 2

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ, based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the

Apostle Paul said, But we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.

In short, if you like smooth, watered -down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn't for you.

By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we're called by the divine trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her

King. Here's our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth. This is some evenings in the

Psalms. We're trying to sing some Psalms. We did Psalm 1 last time, Psalm 2 this time. Probably next time will be

Psalm 22. As you know, we're just working our way through a few of the Psalms on Sunday night.

Fairly short sermons, for the most part, and I just want to make sure you understand how wonderful some of these

Psalms are, particularly tonight, Psalm 2, talking about the matchless power and sovereignty and supremacy of King Jesus, who is both the

Lion and the Lamb, according to the book of Revelation. Arthur Pink said, from every pulpit in the land, it needs to be thundered forth that God still lives and God still observes and that God still reigns.

And that's really Psalm 2, that God reigns. No matter what the world looks like, you have to see with your ears.

That's an important doctrine in Scripture, that instead of looking at things, you need to see things with your ears.

That is, learn to hear the word of God and analyze the world, not based on what you see, but how

God sees it, and we would hear His words proclaimed from the pulpit. This is a

Psalm that shows God rightly exalted. People talk about, well, your God is this, and my

God is that. This God, who reveals Himself, the only God, the God who speaks and the

God who reveals Himself, He is a reigning God, and when you think about that word, sovereign, it's got the root word, the key word in sovereign is to reign.

He reigns, with an E, and that is He is the King of all kings and the Lord of all lords.

This Psalm will help us tonight with what Tozer describes this way, it's my opinion that the Christian conception of God, current in the middle years of the 20th century, or early 21st century, is so, that's a weird word that he picked, decadent, as to be utterly beneath the dignity of God Most High, and actually to constitute, for professed believers, something amounting to a moral calamity.

That is to say, the God that's proclaimed, the God that's studied, the God that's often preached about, is a

God who's not that exalted, who's not that great, and people don't represent His dignity like they should.

This is a Psalm that reminds us not only of the sovereignty of God, but also the love of the

Father to the Son. This Psalm will remind us that there's a perspective of the world, that's

God's perspective, and our perspective. This Psalm will remind us that war and strife will be finished one day by the

Lord Jesus in Revelation chapter 19, and by the way, when we had that ruling several years ago when it comes to gay marriage in America, the first thing

I thought of with the Oberfeld decision was Psalm 2, no matter what's going on in the world, the

Lord still reigns, the Lord still is in control, and that we can trust in Him.

And it is a delusion, it is insanity to somehow kick against the goads of God and try to go against Him, and to say,

I will fight against Him, I will rebel against Him, I will go against Him like those did at the

Tower of Babel. And so today we're going to look at Psalm 2, it will probably be very dramatic because that's the way this

Psalm is set up. And what we would do is we would call this a Royal Psalm or a

Messianic Psalm. There are Psalms that talk about joy, there are Psalms that talk about lament, there are

Psalms that talk about imprecatory issues where we're wanting judgment, there are

Psalms of wisdom, and all these Psalms or songs kind of have themes, and this one is what we call a

Royal Psalm. And if I had to give a title for this Psalm, I would give my mother's favorite song, and I can still think of her with a wig on after chemotherapy, singing at Omaha Bible Church, Victory in Jesus, remember that song?

Victory in, I don't know if it's kind of a swarmy song or not, or if it's a campy song or a revival song, but it was my mom's song that she wanted to sing,

Victory in Jesus my Savior. And that's what we're going to do tonight, is look at this song, this

Psalm that is over the Royal Psalm, Victory in Jesus. Now before we get into the

Psalm, I want you to know that Psalm 1 and Psalm 2 used to be one Psalm in the original, they were hooked together, and you can see that by looking at the first verse of Psalm 1 and the last verse of Psalm 2, do you notice?

Blessed is the man, and then Psalm 2 verse 12, blessed are all those who take refuge in him.

Psalm 1 starts with a blessing, we call that a beatitude, it ends with a blessing, we call that a beatitude.

Psalm 1, it contrasts things, does it not? Righteous and wicked. Psalm 2 contrasts things too, the righteous son and the wicked world.

And there's one word that occurs both places, well several, but in particular Psalm 1 -2, he meditates day and night.

That same word in the Hebrew is in Psalm 2 -1, and that is plot.

He meditates in the people's plot, same kind of idea. So Psalm 1 and 2 go together, and they are the entry point for all the

Psalms, and they prepare us for everything to come in the Psalms. The Psalm has four scenes, four acts.

So you can think of a play, maybe a Broadway play, has anybody ever been like in Esther or something like that?

How many scenes were there? Well there were only two scenes, but the first one was the never ending scene, was it not?

It was a long scene, so there were two scenes mainly, two acts. Here we have four acts, and you can almost probably see them in your

English Bibles, and they are verses 1 -3, 4 -6, 7 -9, and 10 -12.

So there's four scenes or four acts to this particular play. It's not a play, it's a

Psalm, but it's very dramatic, so the scene is changing perspectives. The first scene, verses 1 -3, the psalmist talks about how people defy the

Messiah. The next three verses talk about God in verses 4 -6, saying, you know what, you might defy the

Messiah, but I authorize the Messiah, I commend the Messiah, I put him forward as the

Messiah. Verses 7 -9, the next scene, scene 3, is the Messiah himself speaking.

And then the final scene, verses 10 -12, is the psalmist telling people, in light of scenes 1, 2, and 3, that you ought to do something about it, and that is submit to this great

Messiah by faith. So we could call it four scenes, or four stanzas, three verses each in English.

Who wrote this Psalm, by the way, does anybody know? If you had a guess, right, who wrote this

Psalm? Not the divine author, but David. Okay, that was a very good guess, a very astute congregation.

Acts chapter 4, verse 25, who by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of our father David said, why did the nations rage, and the peoples devise a futile thing?

So David writes this Psalm underneath the tutelage of the Holy Spirit, and it starts quickly, there's no title, there's no beginning, there's no theme, there's no intro liner notes or anything like that, it just starts right away.

So we start right away, scene 1, stanza 1, the kings against the king.

Here we have the rebellion. Why are the nations in an uproar?

Or why do the nations rage? And the peoples devise or plot a vain thing.

The kings of the earth set themselves or take their stand, and the rulers take counsel together against Yahweh, the personal name of God, and against his anointed.

Here's what they say, and you can just imagine they're grinding their teeth. They're angry, they're mad.

Let us tear their, that is the father and the son, the Lord and his anointed, let us tear their feathers apart and cast away their cords from us.

I wrote a little note here, and I said, insurrection is futile.

To play off a little bit of something, remember in seminary they told you, never use a Star Trek illustration ever.

So of course when the law is given to you, you always like to break the law, right? Don't touch wet paint. And so I don't think insurrection is futile, was part of Star Trek, but what was the real phrase?

Assimilation. You will be assimilated. But what would they say is futile? Yes. Is that Star Trek?

Okay. All right. Resistance is futile, and you will be assimilated. I always thought you will be assimilated would be like the effectual call.

If God has your name, you will be absorbed into the collective. Oh, sorry.

All right. Back to the passage. He asks this rhetorical question, and he says,

Why are the nations in an uproar, and people devising a vain thing? He's saying, this is astonishing.

Now, if you're going to fight against someone, you should pick somebody smaller than you, less powerful than you, less wise as you.

Here, these nations are going to fight God Himself? He's like, I can't believe it. Why would you do something so void of reason, so insane, so stupid?

This is like Nebuchadnezzar looking out at all that he had done, saying, I did all this. It starts off very fascinating.

Why are they doing this? Why are the nations? Why are the non -Israelites, the enemy nations, these hostile people, why do they do this?

And it's one thing to rally around your country for the Olympics. Here, all these countries rally around God, because they want to destroy

Him and His Son. Of course, we know the real answer behind that, Romans 8, because the mind set on the flesh is what?

Hostile toward God. These nations are so mad, they rage.

It means to have an uproar. It means to make a noise. It means to like grunt, you're so mad. Violence is insinuated here.

Actually, for those of you that like horses, I know there's one young lady here, when you see that word rage, it means to snort or to neigh, like a horse when it's ready to go into battle.

And if this was not a Sunday night service, I would talk about what would come out of the horse's nose when he would be snorting, just that kind of rage, inflamed nostrils.

Do you get the idea? So far, everybody's paying attention. They haven't used much humor yet.

A little bit of Star Trek stuff. It's like this sea that's going back and forth, raging and foaming and waves and smashing against the dock and rushing, foaming, seething.

And the people, they devise a vain thing. This is parallelism in poetry.

It's saying the same thing. It echoes the same thing in the first line, but just changes it around a little bit.

They rage, the nations do, and they plot in vain. Basically, this is we need to murder

God. We've just got to make our arms a little bit longer. Reminds me of Judges 21.

In those days, there was no king in Israel, and everyone did what? What was right in their own eyes.

And that's what these nations are doing. It doesn't take you very long to think how our current culture could fit right into this.

Verse 2, the kings of the earth take their stand, and the rulers take counsel against the Lord and His anointed. What's their purpose?

Is it economic gain? Is it climate control? Is it world domination? No, it's overthrow

God. Upset His rule. Get rid of God. We don't want Him. We will not have this man nor his son reign over us.

Not one king, not two kings, but the kings of the earth. They all get together, and these kings think they have power, there's nobody above them, and they think now together in this collective, they will do what they want.

They take their stand. Do you notice? They set themselves.

They marshal together for battle. I like Jeremiah 46. Harness the horses, mount the steeds, take your stand with helmets on, polish the spears, put on the armor.

That's what they're doing with pride, with arrogance, they're haughty, they counsel together. One person said, a very beehive of unholy military industry.

Isn't that interesting? A very beehive of unholy military industry. And you can imagine the war room of all these nations and all their conference calls, and all their figuring out strategies and flanking systems, and everything else.

UN resolutions. God is cramping our style.

God is getting in the way of our sins. We don't want to have accountability. We'd like to sin without thinking one day we'll stand before God.

And who do they conspire against? The text says, against Yahweh. Every time you see all those capitals,

L -O -R -D, you should be thinking, this is His personal name. My personal name is

Michael Lee Ebendroth. This is His personal name. And when you think of God's personal name, you should be thinking, faithful, kind, loving, keeping

His promises. These want to gather against this

God. Who would want to attack the Lord? And what do they say?

Here's a liberation movement for you. Let us tear their fetters apart and cast away their cords from us.

We hate authority. We want no one over us. By the way, you can see the world attack authority of God.

And what's the authority of God that He's delegated? Government under attack. Family under attack.

Church leaders under attack. But the attack against family, government and church leaders are ultimately attack against God Himself.

And what they love in themselves, I want to be autonomous and independent and full of authority, they hate in God.

God's ways are repressive. God's ways will not allow us to express ourselves.

We do what we want. And God says, this is My beloved

Son. I give Him to you as a sin bearer. He's going to rescue you and redeem you and love you with an everlasting love.

And the people say, crucify Him. That's the idea. You know, you've got these fetters or these bands or these kind of like straight jackets you put on us,

God. We don't want these. We don't want cords around our neck like reins of a horse, a bit and a bridle to keep us under control.

Go right, go left, stay on course, obey the law. And the funny thing is, those things are for our own good.

I can think of Hosea 11, I led them with cords of a man with bonds of love.

And I became to them as one who lifts the yoke from their jaws and I bent down and fed them. Those are the kind of bonds the

Lord gives. Our Lord Jesus said the same thing. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble at heart and you shall find rest for your souls.

For My yoke is what? Easy and My load is light. But these, they say those good things are evil.

Leopold said the world breathes defiance for God. They should be praising

God. They should be exalting God. Psalm 148, Let the nations praise the name of the

Lord, for His name alone is exalted. His glory is above earth and heaven. No freedom, no peace.

Can you not just read those verses and say, I understand sin? Because of the fall, individually, collectively, we're rebels.

A side note, there are a lot of politicians that are trying to fix things. Unless you have the right view of sin, you'll never fix anything.

It'll be a temporary patch. That's one of the reasons why I do not think psychology has the answers.

They can analyze things. But if you say man at his core or her core is basically good, you can't help with a solution, right?

Man is depraved. Men and women are sinful. People are not good.

Sin kills Christ. Sin killed Christ. But, another little point here, dear friends.

Don't expect anything from unbelievers, except things that issue from unbelief. Unbelievers act like unbelievers, do they not?

We should not be surprised. We did when we were unbelievers. Act 2.

The kings against the kings, Act 1. Now the camera changes. Now we get heaven's perspective.

That's the earthly perspective. What's the heavenly perspective? Verses 4, 5, and 6.

I would imagine God's pretty frightened. I would imagine if God had fingernails, they'd all be chewed off.

I can imagine God would be shaking in his boots and all the nations conspiring together.

They're pretty smart. They're pretty powerful. There's an abrupt change here.

We call this divine derision. It's like you have the veil pulled back and you get to see heaven.

What's going on there? Maybe he's just a deist. Maybe he started everything.

It's unraveling. He can't do much about it. Maybe he's sweating.

Maybe he's crossed his fingers not often enough. He who sits in the heavens laughs.

The Lord scoffs at them. Then he will speak to them in his anger and terrify in his fury.

But as for me, I've installed my king upon Zion, my holy mountain. And Tim did not know this.

The next words in my notes are, a mighty fortress is our God. S. Lewis Johnson said,

Man may think that his mad schemes are magnificent and enthralling, awe -inspiring in their tribute to his power and majesty, but to God all his efforts are puny indeed.

I don't think I use that word often enough in my repertoire of English. Puny. That's puny.

We had, how do you pronounce that word where you had Gulliver and then you had all those little tiny, little putions.

That's what it's like. Don't you like the way it says it in verse 4?

This is poetry. You sing about this. You sang about this. You're singing about God's response to this foment and this rage of the world.

He's calm. He's sitting. He's not standing. He's not pacing. I don't know what you do when you get really upset.

He's sitting. He's laughing. This is the

Lord God, infinitely superior. Psalm 37 says the same thing.

The wicked plots against the righteous and gnashes at him with his teeth, and the Lord laughs at him for he sees his day coming.

Isn't that interesting? He sees his day coming. All these nations attacking, and the Lord says,

I see your days coming. The triumph of God. That's why you've got to have your focus and your trust in the right things.

And if you trust in money, trust in nations, trust in America. I love America. But you've got to have your right trust and your right focus.

It lies not in nations and people. Our confidence lies in the Lord. Literally, it says, who sits in the heavens, the one being enthroned.

Calmly, serenely. I wonder if God sees all these nations and thinks,

I probably should have some Xanax or some

Ativan or some tranquilizers. He laughs.

Don't you like that? He laughs. If I was teaching a bunch of kids, here's how I would teach it.

Ready? There are some kids right here. Okay? I didn't get any letters from you boys. Pastor's Appreciation Month.

Remember in the old days, somebody at school, at least this would happen with us, and there's some big bully and stuff, and he'd say a bunch of things to you, and he would say this,

Ooh, I'm shaking. Ooh, I'm shaking. Anthony's old enough to know that.

But you might have been the bully. No, I'm just kidding. Oh, yeah, God's out there. Ooh, I'm shaking.

I'm really scared. It's like God's amused.

He looks down, and it's amusement. He's not afraid. God is untouchable.

He's unsalable. He's the God of hosts. And what's the text say? Do you see?

He holds them in derision, or he scoffs. It means he mocks.

That's his response. One man said, If a fly should attack an elephant, what would happen?

He will speak to them, verse 5, in his anger, and terrify them in his fury.

And what do we have? From laughter to kind of bone -chilling speech. God is going to intervene.

There is going to be a time. We might sing, In His time, He makes all things beautiful in His time.

But there's in His time, He's going to judge everyone in His time as well. And there's a anger here.

There's a burning. This is language of accommodation, so we can see that God is angry.

Psalm 5 -5 talks about that. Psalm 7 -11 talks about that. And the truth of the psalm, if you'd like to have a centerpiece for all the psalm, it's found in verse 6.

But, here's one of those great buts in the Bible. But as for me, I've installed my king upon Zion, my holy mountain.

Done, settled, everything's on target. You're all foaming and raging in the nations.

And I've already appointed it. I've already settled it. I've already set it up. There's going to be a

Davidic ruler who's better than David. They might have started the war, but I'm going to finish it.

I remember my father used to say, he was a boxer, he would say, Son, don't cock it unless you're going to throw it.

I don't really know what that meant, but now I remember. He, the king, with poetry, with prophecy, 2

Samuel chapter 7, he shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.

Jesus, we all know, is constituted king of Zion. It is a folly to sin.

It's folly to shoot guns at God, pea shooters at God, spitballs at God.

Well, we move to the next scene. God is going to intervene. Now we move to scene 3, stanza 3, the next 3 verses.

It's kind of nice how this breaks up. 3 verses, 3 verses, 3 verses, 3 verses. The Lord's anointed speaks, verses 7 through 9.

So we've got the kings against the king. We have divine derision, and now we have the divine decree.

I will surely tell of the decree of the Lord, and He said to me, or He said to me,

Thou art My son, today I have begotten you. Or the Lord said to me, You are My son, today

I have begotten you. Ask of Me, and I will surely give the nations as Thine inheritance, and the very ends of the earth as Thy possession.

Thou shalt break them with the rod of iron, Thou shalt shatter them like earthenware. God is in control.

He's sovereign. He's independent. He controls all these. And not one of these people can thwart

His will. Let's take a look at verse 7 a little bit. I will surely tell of the decree of the

Lord. This confirmation, this legal document, this legal matter that's divinely ordained.

When you used to think of decrees back in those days, one commentator said it's a document presented to the king upon his coronation.

And it's an affirmation of the covenant. It's an affirmation of what's going on with the king.

This is language right from 2 Samuel chapter 7 with the Davidic covenant. I will be a father to Him, and He will be a son to me.

It's that kind of language. I like Arthur Pink. The decree of God relates to all future things without exception.

Whatever is done in time was foreordained before time began. God's purpose was concerned with everything, whether great or small, whether good or evil.

God's decree is as comprehensive as His government, extending to all creatures and all events.

I have begotten thee. You can see verse 7. What's it mean? I declare my son to be the king, and he has all authority.

And we'll see later with Paul that is true when Jesus was raised from the dead, declared to be the son of God.

Romans chapter 1. And declared to be the son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead, according to the spirit of holiness.

This is Acts chapter 13 fulfillment. God has promised this to our children and that He raised up Jesus as it is written in the second

Psalm. You are my son, today I have begotten thee. Luke chapter 1.

He will be great, Jesus will be, and He'll be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father,

David. Take a look at verse 8. Ask of me, and I will surely give the nations as thine inheritance, and the very ends of the earth as thy possession.

This is fascinating too. This is language, poetry again. God's going to give

His anointed anything He wants. All the kingdoms of the world. You can see, of course, later on,

Satan tried to kind of thwart that and said, by the way, you can have all the kingdoms now, don't go to the cross first, you can have glory, but that wasn't in the plan of God.

Here's a father graciously giving the Son world rule, all the nations through the

Davidic promise. Thou shalt break them with the rod of iron, thou shalt shatter them like earthenware.

Three times this is in the book of Revelation. With a rod symbolizing government and authority.

But it's not really like a rod, it's like a mace. This is like a mace. And by the way, back in Egypt, I don't know if this is transferred over to Israel or not, but this is fascinating nonetheless.

In Egypt, how would you show that you had worldwide domination over everyone else?

Well, they would make these pots, and each pot would be symbol of a country.

So I could make a pot today, Syria. Make a pot, Egypt. I could make a pot,

Israel. And then what we would do to show you that I was so powerful over all them, I'd have a name on each one of those pots, and then my servant, my attendant, would give me the mace, and I would just smash the pot saying,

I have dominion over that country. Fascinating.

Shattering it, dashing it to pieces. One writer said, of the 30

Roman emperors, governors of provinces and other high office members who distinguished themselves in their bitterness in persecuting the early

Christians, one became speedily deranged after some atrocious cruelty.

One was slain by his own son. One became blind. The eyes of one started out of his head.

One was drowned. One was strangled. One died in miserable captivity. One fell dead in a manner that will not bear recital.

One died of so loathsome a disease that several of his physicians were put to death because they could not abide the stench that filled him.

Two committed suicide. A third attempted it, but had to call for help to finish the work. Five were assassinated by their own people or servants.

Five others died the most miserable and excruciating deaths, several of them having an untold complication of diseases, and eight were killed in battle or after being taken prisoners."

Even then you rage against the machine. It's no machine. He's a person, the Lord God.

There is going to be trouble. So what do you do in light of all that?

Well, we come to the final stanza, stanza four, found in verses 10, 11, and 12.

God has enthroned his son, and he has, of course, demonstrated his sonship by being raised from the dead, and he has all the nations, and the church will grow, and the church will not be defiled.

And here it says, in verses 10, 11, and 12, several warnings.

See if you can spot them. I'll read them, and we'll go through each. There'll be five total. Now therefore,

O kings, show discernment. Take warning,

O judges of the earth. Worship the Lord with reverence, and rejoice in trembling. Do homage to the son, lest he become angry, and you perish in the way, for his wrath may be soon kindled.

How blessed are all who take refuge in him. True or false?

The fear of the Lord is a beginning of wisdom. See what I said this morning? Right? If I just quote something, you just say yes, because it's usually a

Bible. Because usually I have a Bible verse there, and the reason why I say this, by the way, true or false, is because some of you have had long weeks, and today's a long day, and you're kind of tired, but if I say true or false, what do you try to do?

You try to figure out if it's true or false, just like if I say the wages of sin is death, you have to fill in the blanks.

I'm just trying to keep you awake. That's all. I understand that. The old Mike Abendroth was, this is

God's word, you better pay attention or else. How dare you sleep. And now, I realize we're all weak people.

The one time I almost fell asleep in service, I was sitting on the front row of Grace Community Church, and there was a baptism that night, and somebody at our

Bible study was going to get baptized, so I wanted to be in the front row, so this person could see me, and be encouraged, because you can't really see far into this large auditorium, the sanctuary.

So I was sitting in the front row, and I was working two jobs, and super tired and everything else, and John's up preaching.

I just could not keep my eyes open. Out of all times to sit in the front row, that was not the time.

But sleep is a blessing, so I can bless you in any way. Look at the commands. Show discernment.

By the way, do you notice, now therefore, if you're here today and you're not a Christian, there's no well,

I think I'll wait till the end of my life, I'll get everything ready then, before God, because I'll sow my oats now, and then

I'll believe later. Friends, belief is not a work, because if it was a work, you could generate it yourself, but since it's not a work, you can't generate it yourself, so you can't wait till the end of your life anyway.

That's very unwise. He says, now kings, now therefore, and whether you're a king, or anybody under a king, or anybody else or a person, there's a conclusion, and the conclusion is, here's your response, since God is a great

God, an enthroned God, the only God, what do you do? Number one, be wise.

It means to show discernment. It means to be prudent.

It actually means to give attention to, to just take a walk, be quiet, and think, you know what, the

God that made the sun, and the moon, and the stars, made me, and I will answer to him one day.

And now these days, everybody's just full of all kinds of headphones, thinking about everything, and they're not being considerate of their future.

Number two, take warning. Be warned, you won't live forever.

Be careful. Red alert. Number three, worship the

Lord with reverence. Worship the Lord with reverence. This is such a great

God, you ought to be on your face. To worship means to prostrate oneself, to bow down, to pay homage, to stand in awe.

Fourthly, rejoice with trembling. I mean, there's a rejoicing there, but it's kind of contained by trembling, because God is so exalted.

Habakkuk 3 says, Because I heard, and my inward parts trembled, at the sound my lips quivered, decay entered my bones, and in my place

I tremble, because I must wait quietly for the day of distress, for the people to arise who will invade us, yet I will exalt in the

Lord, I will rejoice in the God of my salvation. And then finally, ESV says, kiss the sun.

Kiss the sun. This means to pay homage. This means to submit to the sonship.

This means to show respect to. And back in those days, it would mean to kiss.

It means to show affection, to show honor, to show allegiance.

Here's what he's saying, Would you please stop kissing money, fame, power, bail, false gods, entertainment, yourself, and kiss the living

God, by trusting in Christ Jesus. I love 1 Kings 19, Yet I will leave 7 ,000 in Israel, all the knees that have not bowed to bail, and every mouth that has not kissed him.

It doesn't even mean literal kissing, it's just a good figure of speech, to show honor, and homage, and affection, and loyalty, and belief.

I think there was a lady, by the way, and the text says she was a sinner, and when she learned that Jesus was reclining at table in the

Pharisee's house, she brought an alabaster vial of perfume, and standing behind him at his feet, weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears, and kept wiping them with the hair of her head, and kissing his feet, and anointing them with perfume.

And now for us, since Jesus isn't here bodily, it means to be low. If you had to kiss someone's feet back in the day, it would mean humiliation, it would mean homage.

Kiss the feet. Chapter 2, verses 1, 2, and 3, they're kicking the sun, they're kicking against the goads of the sun, and here now, they're supposed to kiss the sun, and this is language of,

I pledge allegiance. Sooner or later, everyone here will kiss the sun.

Philippians 2 said that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow, of those who are in heaven, and on earth, and under earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is

Lord to the glory of God the Father. And by the way, if you want to postpone it, look what the text says.

You better be careful, his wrath may soon be kindled. Stop playing around.

Settle it today by trusting in the Lord Jesus, the risen Savior. I wonder how unspeakable

His wrath might be. I wonder how awful His wrath might be. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of a living

God. But it doesn't end there. Here's how it ends for us, for those in Christ.

How blessed are all those who take refuge in Him. You know how you could translate this?

Those that trust in Jesus have a rewarded life, a rewarding life.

They get asylum and shelter. They get blessed. It doesn't even say blessed at all.

What does it say? How blessed? There's extra blessings. And there's no refuge from Him, only in Him.

And when you're in Him, you get all the blessings. The Puritan Gernal said, the reason why so many poor souls have so little heat of joy in their hearts is that they have so little light of the gospel knowledge in their mind.

Psalm 1 starts with a blessing. Psalm 2 ends with a blessing. This song is a song worth singing.

Let's pray. Father, I thank You for our time in Your Word. We're thankful for Your Son that You have ordained, that You have said of Him, today,

I have begotten You. And You did give the nations to the Son. And we are thankful for that.

And You've granted so many of us here saving faith. And we have kissed the Son. I pray if there's someone here tonight who is loving their life,

I pray that You would have them lose it because of the Lord Jesus. I would pray if there's someone here who is trusting in their own righteousness, that You would show them that Jesus Christ, like the book of Revelation says, loves sinners and has released us from our sins by His blood.

Thank You, Lord. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible teaching church firmly committed to unleashing the life -transforming power of God's Word through verse -by -verse exposition of the sacred text.

Please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 1015 and in the evening at 6. We're right on Route 110 in West Boylston.

You can check us out online at bbcchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.