Two OT Passages That Scream "Jesus Is The High Priest" - [Hebrews 5:5b-6]

Bethlehem Bible Church iconBethlehem Bible Church

0 views

0 comments

00:00
What does this describe? A fabrication process that joins metals, materials, or thermoplastics by causing fusion.
00:14
And what did they just say? Welding. Thank you. Well, I'm on thin ice because we have a world -class welder in our midst that flies around the world teaching welding and winning prizes.
00:30
My research says this. See how I've covered myself, Andrew? In addition to melting the base metal, a filler material is typically added to the joint to form a pool of molten material, the weld pool, that cools to form a joint that is usually stronger than the base material.
00:52
And you can use different energy sources to weld. You can use flame, gas flame, electric arc, laser, electron beam, friction, and ultrasound.
01:02
So far so good? All right, good. Thumbs up. And you can weld in space, in the air, and underwater.
01:15
The problem is there's lots of hazards that go along with welding. Statistics show that 1 in 250 construction workers will suffer fatal injury from welding over a lifetime.
01:28
You can get burned. You can get shocked. You can have poisonous gases inhaled.
01:34
You can be exposed to intense ultraviolet radiation. And probably the thing we think of the most is with the welder's goggles.
01:43
And they are protecting from arc eye. I don't know how to pronounce it, but I'll give it a shot. Photokaryotesis.
01:50
Yeah? Okay, we have some nurses here. All right. Do we have any plumbers here? Do we have any?
01:58
Academians, thank you. Arc eye. And you get kind of a sunburn on your cornea. It's dangerous.
02:05
Well, this morning, we're going to look at biblical welding. But the only danger is not physical.
02:12
The danger is not seeing what the Holy Spirit has revealed in the Scripture. The danger is not understanding and knowing this biblical weld.
02:22
Turn your Bibles, please, to Hebrews chapter 5. The only danger here with this biblical weld is missing out on this vital truth about Jesus.
02:36
What is our goal in life? Oh, to know Jesus better. To worship Him. To rest in Him. That's what we heard from the waters of baptism today, did we not?
02:46
Jesus did it all. All to Him I owe. Sin has made a crimson stain, but He has washed it white as snow.
02:52
To rest in Jesus. What a great concept in the book of Hebrews. Instead of to strive to be right with God, instead of to do religious things, instead of to do ceremonial things, civil things, to just take
03:04
Jesus at His word and trust in Him. To rest in Him. What chapter 5 verse 5b and 6 does is it takes two verses from the
03:16
Old Testament and welds them together to form a hinge, to form something solid and strong.
03:23
It takes Psalm 2 and Psalm 110, our parts of those two Psalms, and welds them together so you can understand the entire book of Hebrews.
03:33
I think it's fair to say if you understand Psalm 2 and Psalm 110, you will understand the book of Hebrews, as these two passages by the
03:42
Spirit of God are linked. They're welded together, forged together. For Christians to understand the first part of the weld,
03:50
Jesus is the Son of God. And that's what He's talked about in chapter 1, 2, 3, and 4. Jesus is the
03:55
Son, the Eternal Son, self -existence. Before Genesis 1 and 1, the Son existed.
04:01
Jesus as Son. And the other passage that we need to have welded together, because the Spirit of God does it, is
04:07
Psalm 110. Jesus is the High Priest. He's not just a temporary High Priest.
04:13
He's a High Priest that's eternal. Now as you know, I love the book of Hebrews.
04:18
I can tell you that it's changed my life. It's changed my preaching style. It's changed my philosophy and methodology, with some big things and some fine -tuning.
04:28
One of the things that's helped me with the book of Hebrews is not only its focus on Jesus, but its focus on Jesus through the lens of the
04:34
Old Testament. Everywhere you go, there's an Old Testament quote, and so it's helping us to understand the
04:41
Old Testament. A cursory overview of Old Testament passages directly quoted by Hebrews in only the first four chapters include
04:49
Psalm 2, 2 Samuel 7, Deuteronomy 32,
04:56
Psalm 97, Psalm 104, Psalm 45, Psalm 102,
05:03
Psalm 110, Psalm 8, Psalm 22, Isaiah 8,
05:09
Psalm 95, and Genesis 2. There's no possible way we can have a rich and deep understanding of the
05:17
New Testament unless we understand the Old Testament as well. Paul Benoit said this, quote,
05:24
A person will never properly understand the New Testament if the Old Testament scriptures remain a mystery to him.
05:31
Yet for the average Christian, the pattern, unity, and progression of the Old Testament remain vague or unknown.
05:39
Although most everyone knows about Noah and the ark, Moses and the Red Sea, and numerous other stories found in the books of the
05:46
Old Testament, the Old Testament itself often seems fragmented and is seen only as a loosely knit group of stories.
05:54
But to understand God's way and His purposes in this age, as well as His plans for future ages, requires a clear comprehension of the
06:04
Old Testament. So I love it that as we study the book of Hebrews, we continue to study the
06:09
Old Testament, and it just all becomes much easier to see the flow and the redemptive continuity between Old and New Testaments.
06:17
After all, the God of the Old Testament is the God of the New Testament. Contrary to popular college campuses and the ignorance that's often exposed there, there's one eternal
06:29
God, the triune God, one God, three persons, Father, Son, and Spirit.
06:35
And so He reveals Himself as a God of grace and justice in the Old and in the New. So what
06:41
I love about the book of Hebrews is it's focused on who Jesus is. It proclaims Him as supreme, as better, so that you might trust in Him and rest in Him.
06:51
It also helps us when it comes to understanding the Old Testament. And if you had to back up a little bit and say, the two biggest things in life for me to get my arms around, the one is the nature of God, and the other is the nature of man, our mankind, humankind.
07:09
And that's exactly what Hebrews deals with. Who is God? He's not only thrice holy, but He's a gracious God.
07:17
And who is man? And we are sinful, and we are fallen, and we are rebellious, and we transgress, and we have iniquities, and we do perverted things, to use the scriptural language.
07:28
So what do we do with a God who is thrice holy, and different, and set apart, and is unstained by sin, yet we're sinful?
07:36
Those two concepts need to be dealt with in every religion. How can
07:41
I be right with God? Can a man cleanse his own sin? So the book of Hebrews deals with God as this great
07:48
God, and it deals with us as we are. And my responsibility is to faithfully discharge the
07:55
Word of God. My job is not to make this Bible relevant. If the pastor ever gets up and says, you know,
08:03
I'm going to make the Bible relevant by cool slide shows, and PowerPoint, and I'm going to show you some gladiator videos while I'm preaching, or whatever it might be.
08:12
I'm going to show you the relevancy of it. They're already behind the gun. Because, let me ask you this, is
08:18
God relevant? Is death relevant? Is sin relevant? Is eternal perdition relevant?
08:24
Is heaven relevant? Yes, God is relevant. And so the scriptures, since they're written by God, the relevant one, are relevant.
08:31
These are transchronological truths. By the way, some words you just like to say. I love to say propitiation.
08:39
God's wrath is assuaged. I love to say sacerdotal. Be careful of churches that go through priestly systems.
08:45
And I just love to say transchronological. Throughout time, no matter what you look like, no matter what language you speak, no matter where your country is located in the world, in 1 ,000 years in the future or 3 ,000 years that way, the
09:02
Bible applies and is relevant. Why? Because God is relevant. When I preach in Zambia or India or Poland, I preach the same message.
09:15
Why? Well, okay, when I'm in India, I say cricket. All right. Instead of football.
09:21
When I'm in Poland, you have to say football, not soccer. But besides a little funny illustration here or there, it's the relevancy of scripture, and therefore we proclaim it.
09:30
And we proclaim it from the pulpit. We proclaim it in the Sunday school, and we encourage you to proclaim it to your own neighbors and your own kids around the dinner table, et cetera.
09:40
Jesus, the high priest, is relevant. He is relevant because God is holy and we're not, and so we need someone to offer prayers on our behalf.
09:49
That's what a high priest does. And to offer a sacrifice on our behalf. So everything about Hebrews is tunneling in and focusing in upon Jesus, the high priest, whom we need because we sin.
10:03
This is even good, friends, before we look at the text in particular. When you struggle with sin as a
10:09
Christian, if you say, you know what, I'm working through some assurance issues. I followed the Lord for a long time and I've trusted
10:14
Him, but I don't feel saved. I'm struggling with my assurance. I've lost my confidence in my security before God.
10:24
This is a good book for you because since we've committed many sins and we are all unworthy of being saved, this book will focus you on Jesus, who perfectly lived, who perfectly obeyed, who perfectly loved
10:39
God, who perfectly loved His neighbor. And the Bible teaches you, you receive His benefits by faith, perfectly clothed with His perfection.
10:50
Fannie Crosby said in her song, blessed assurance, Jesus is mine. Oh, what a foretaste of glory divine, heir of salvation, purchase of God, born of His Spirit, washed in His blood.
11:02
This is my story. This is my song, praising my Savior all the day long. Yeah, but what about your sins this week?
11:11
What about my sins this week? How can I sing a song like that knowing who
11:16
I am? And the answer is found in, Jesus is the eternal
11:21
Son and Jesus is the High Priest because you stand before God not based on your own merit.
11:27
We could never do that. It would be like a nuclear fission. It'd be some kind of massive welder blow up.
11:33
But we stand before God based on the work of another. And that's what Hebrews is about. Two passages,
11:39
Psalm 2 and Psalm 110, forged together. And if you understand these two passages,
11:44
I'm not exaggerating much to say, you'll understand who God is, you'll understand the Old Testament, and you'll understand who
11:51
Jesus is, the High Priest. Psalm 2, Psalm 110. If I drive to your house tonight, at 2 .30
11:56
in the morning, and honk the horn, I want you to just open up the window, thank God the seven months of winter is over, and you open up the window, and you just go,
12:04
Psalm 2, Psalm 110. That's right. Psalm 8 is not bad either.
12:12
But Psalm 2 and Psalm 110 were the reflex, were the knee jerk responses, muscle memory for the
12:19
Jew. For us, our muscle memory, oh, it could be our spangled banner. It could be Psalm 23.
12:24
But for the Jews, it was Psalm 2. They knew it. They had it memorized. And it was
12:29
Psalm 110. They knew it. They had it memorized. You don't understand
12:35
Psalm 2? You don't understand Psalm 110? You can't understand the riches of, A, the Bible, and B, Jesus Christ as the eternal
12:42
God, who is our High Priest. So it helps in every way, including assurance.
12:49
Now let me read verses 1 through 4 to catch us up from last week. Hebrews chapter 5, a book written, if I remember what the commentator said, a book written by a
13:02
Hebrew to Hebrews, reminding them not to be
13:09
Hebrews any longer and to focus on the great Hebrew, Jesus Christ. That's the book of Hebrews.
13:16
Verse 1, For every High Priest chosen from among men is appointed to act on behalf of men in relation to God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins.
13:28
Remember, we need a priest that can be God and man to be a mediator. He can deal gently with the ignorant and wayward since he himself is beset with weakness.
13:38
And of course, we know our Lord in the Incarnation was weak in many ways.
13:43
Certainly, He didn't sin. And so there's going to be a little difference here between Aaron and the Levites and Jesus. Since Jesus is sinless, the comparison isn't perfect, but you can understand verse 3.
13:54
Because of this, He is obligated to offer sacrifice for His own sins. That's the
13:59
Old Testament covenant system, just as He does for those of the people. And no one takes this honor for himself but only when called by God, just as Aaron was.
14:11
Verse 5, At the beginning, So also Christ did not exalt Himself to be made a
14:17
High Priest, but was appointed by Him who said to Him, Stop there. In summary,
14:24
Hebrews 5 is this. You need a priest chosen by God for you, chosen from among men.
14:32
You need a God -man so He can intercede on behalf of God and intercede on behalf of men.
14:39
You need not just 50 -50, but fully God and fully man. And the Eternal God, the Second Person of the
14:44
Trinity, added humanity and is now our High Priest. Now let's read those two passages from Psalm 2 and Psalm 110, that the writer, the
14:56
Holy Spirit, has forged together, has welded together, has put together. He was appointed by Him who said to Him, You are my
15:07
Son, today I have begotten You. As He says also in another place, there's the forge.
15:15
You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.
15:23
Both, do you notice, if you were looking for similarities, you are, and you are, talking about Jesus.
15:31
Generally speaking, Psalm 2 is about Jesus as Son, and that's what the writer has talked about in Hebrews 1, 2, 3, and 4.
15:39
Now Psalm 110, Jesus is talked of as being a priest, and that's the rest of the book.
15:47
If you understand Jesus as Son, and Jesus as High Priest, you know Hebrews, and you know your
15:53
Old Testament. He's kind of concluding things. Remember in verse 5, So also, kind of a concluding set of words,
16:02
Christ did not exalt Himself. He didn't just say, I'm going to be a priest. The Father chose Him to be the priest, but was appointed by Him who said.
16:12
So here's what we're going to do today. While I've taught this in the past, I want you to have Psalm 2 and Psalm 110 down rock solid, so that you can study them.
16:23
Matter of fact, here's your homework assignment already ahead of time. I'd like you to read Psalm 2 and Psalm 110 every day this week.
16:30
If you don't read anything else this week, I want you to read Psalm 2 every day in the same Bible, Psalm 10 every day in the same
16:37
Bible, so you can see, and you can notice the peculiarities, and the repetition words, and the verbs, and everything else.
16:45
Psalm 2, Psalm 110, so then it becomes reflex for you. So then you go, oh yeah, that's the default, and every time
16:51
I see Psalm 2 quoted, I'll know from where it comes, and from why it comes. You are my son, and you are a high priest forever.
17:01
Interesting, both Psalms have a pronouncement by God in the second person. And you see this great flicker of the triune
17:09
God, the Father, now speaking to the Son. So for this morning, so we can understand
17:16
Hebrews 5 better, we're going to go to Psalm 2, and if we have enough time, which we never will,
17:24
Psalm 110, okay? And by the way, we have a treat for you next week. Sammy Williams is going to be here preaching, and I call
17:29
Sammy, I can tell you this ahead of time, he's an Indian man, but I call him the smiling assassin, because he can talk about really hard doctrines with just that smile he has, and you're just like, okay, give it to me, but you are going to be encouraged.
17:45
There's sometimes, it's not good to be the pastor, and other times it is. In this particular case, it's really good to be the pastor, because I'm telling him to preach
17:53
Psalm 117 next week, and I've heard him preach it. It is going to be so encouraging. Why did
17:59
I bring that up? Psalm 2 today, and when Sammy's done, I'll do Psalm 110. All right?
18:05
The first part of the weld, Psalm 2. So turn your Bibles to Psalm chapter 2. Remember, these people that the writer of Hebrews was writing to, they just knew these
18:14
Psalms. It was just part of their fabric. This is one of those Psalms that if you knew any Psalm, this would be it.
18:20
For us, as I said before, maybe it's Psalm 103, maybe Psalm 145 is your go -to, Psalm 8.
18:26
For the Jews, it was Psalm 2 and Psalm 110. Messianic Psalms. There are
18:31
Psalms of lament, there are Psalms of encouragement, there are Psalms of praise, there are
18:37
Psalms of imprecatory nature, where they're calling down curses on God's enemies, and there are
18:42
Psalms specifically about the Messiah. This is one of those Psalms. And this Psalm tells you about the matchless power and majesty of the
18:52
Lord Jesus Christ, who is both the Lion and the Lamb, a God who serves no one by compulsion.
19:01
Years ago, when the gay marriage law came into being, someone asked me, if you were going to go home and preach to your home church in light of this awful current event, what would you tell them?
19:13
And I would say, on the interview I told them, I'd say, I'd go home and preach Psalm 2.
19:20
When the nations are raging, and issues are going on behind the scenes, who is God? I mean, this is the key to all current events.
19:27
This is the key to all personal trials that you go through, and issues, and future doctor's appointments.
19:32
This is settling. This is good to just settle in, and all the focus is on the
19:38
Father and on the Son. And of course, the words are inspired by the Spirit.
19:45
The covenant -keeping triune God establishes His Messiah's reign, no matter what the enemy opposition is.
19:55
The covenant -keeping triune God establishes the Messiah's reign, no matter what the opposition is.
20:04
If I could put it, like I said earlier, no matter what the transchronological problems are. If I had to entitle this song with a hymn title, it would be
20:15
Victory in Jesus. You like that song? I can still see my mom bald singing praise songs with cancer about ready to die, and she's singing
20:23
Victory in Jesus. A theological perspective for interpreting your personal and world events.
20:32
Seeing everything in your life through this grid. Like I said, winter's now over, and you can have the screen door open, and you see outside on the lawn the dog and the ball and the bone and the cat and all these things, but you really have the screen there.
20:48
So I'm seeing the world through this screen door, through this grid. Psalm 2 is the grid.
20:54
Psalm 2 is the screen door. A theological perspective, no matter what will happen.
20:59
And you will see that God is sovereign over everything. Now there's some order to the psalms and how they're put in the canon.
21:05
Notice how Psalm 1, verse 1, starts out with, Blessed is the man.
21:11
And Psalm 1 and 2 are connected, and you can even see that at the end of Psalm 2. As Psalm 1 starts off with,
21:17
Blessed is the man, Psalm 2 ends with, Blessed are all who take refuge in Him. Psalm 1 begins with a beatitude.
21:24
Psalm 2 ends with one. You can also see in Psalm 1, there's a contrast between righteous and the sinner.
21:32
And in Psalm 2, you have a contrast between the sinful world and the righteous one.
21:37
And even when we look at Psalm 1, verse 1, Blessed is the man. If you have a Bible that says,
21:42
Blessed is the person, or the humankind, or something like that, it's completely missed it.
21:48
Because this is a particular man, the man, who is the ultimate blessed man, who never walked in the counsel of the wicked, who never stood in the way of sinners, who never sat in the seat of scoffers, and who always delighted in the
21:59
Lord. I'll tell you who that man is. He's the Psalm 2 man. But for today, we're going to look at just Psalm 2.
22:06
And if you had to look at it and break it down, there are 12 verses, four acts,
22:11
A -C -T -S, or four scenes, or four stanzas, if you like music.
22:17
And of course, this was a song, a psalm. We don't have the music, but these are the lyrics. Each stanza is about the same length, three verses in English.
22:27
And I'll give you the four scenes' names.
22:33
Once in a while, my inner Baptist comes out, so here's the alliteration. Rages, ridicules, reigns, repent.
22:43
Rages, ridicules, reigns, and repent. Those are the four one -word descriptions of this passage.
22:55
The kings are now against the king of kings. Verse 1. Why do the nations rage?
23:01
And the peoples plot in vain. The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together against the
23:09
Lord Yahweh, the covenant -keeping God, and against His anointed. Sane.
23:15
Let us burst their bonds apart, cast away their cords from us. What we have here is a full -blown insurrection.
23:26
God is the creator, we are created people, and the nations get together in kind of a Tower of Babel -like conglomeration, and they are going to try to defy the
23:35
God of the universe. If resistance is futile, so is insurrection.
23:45
That was for Pastor Steve. He asked the question, Why do the nations rage?
23:52
And he asked, Why are they in an uproar? I mean, who could think? This is like a rhetorical question. How can these nations be against God?
23:58
Do they know who they're after? This is not just foolish and stupid, but it's absurd, and it's bewildering.
24:05
All at the same time. I mean, if you're going to act like Nebuchadnezzar, and just wander around, and eat grass, and say moo all the time, this is how the nations act like Nebuchadnezzar.
24:18
This is ironic that they would do something like this. This is astounding. Of course, we know the
24:26
New Testament says, the mind set on the flesh is hostile to God. The text says, the nations are in a rage.
24:35
My ESV says, noisy assembly. That's exactly right. My little note.
24:42
You get together with a bunch of people who are mad, and it sounds loud. It sounds cacophonous.
24:47
It sounds like a riot. They're assembled together. They're stirring things up. You can just imagine how people march today.
24:58
You don't let us go. We're going to be mad. They're restless. This is a word that's used of horses, that just are all bound up, and have nowhere to go.
25:09
This is a picture of a sea that's just raging, and tsunami -like, and wind -like, and foaming, and fuming, and seething.
25:18
Is this going to end? Will the waves ever die down? Will the insurrection ever stop? And what do the people do, verse 1?
25:24
The people plot in vain. Remember, this is a poem. This is a song.
25:30
So you have a lot of parallelism. You have one line, and then it could say the opposite of.
25:35
That would be kind of an opposite parallel, but a synonymous parallel is, one line says one thing, the next line says another, but they're really similar to reinforce the same point.
25:45
And that's what's going on here. The peoples are devising the same thing. You could even translate the word peoples as warriors, because it's a military context.
25:54
They're all lining up in military array, in battalion -like strength, to try to go against God.
26:03
And what does the text already tell you that's happening? They're plotting in vain. It's not going to work. They can think about it all the time, but it's going to be in vain.
26:15
I'm just thinking to myself, in those days, there was no king in Israel, and everyone did what was right in his own eyes.
26:23
Let's plan out. If you ever watch those Dateline kind of deals, I don't know what the one is on CBS.
26:30
48 hours. They're plotting and scheming, and they usually have to do with murder. Here's the plot.
26:35
Here's the murder. I've got to go to Target and buy this, that, and the other for everything, and I'm going to do this, that, and the other after the deed is done.
26:42
This is the premeditated murder of God is what they have going on. And it starts at the top, verse 2.
26:50
The kings of the earth, they take their stand. The rulers take counsel against the
26:56
Lord and against His anointed. All these divine monarchs, all the big shots, consciously standing before God, setting themselves, marshalling themselves together for battle.
27:09
This sounds like Jeremiah 46. Harness the horses. Mount the steeds. Take your armor stand with your helmets on.
27:17
Polish the spears. Put on the scale armor. With so much pride and haughtiness.
27:25
As one man said, like a beehive of unholy military industry. No UN resolutions against this.
27:37
No vetoes. And to whom do they conspire against?
27:42
What's the text say? Against the gracious, faithful, covenant -keeping
27:48
God whose name is Yahweh and His Messiah, His anointed one. And they think if they get a big enough 50 -cal machine gun, they're going to be able to spray
28:02
God. They think if the ammo is big enough, some kind of bunker bomb is big enough, we're going to be able to destroy
28:10
God. When we were kids, we used to love Bic pens. Why did we love
28:17
Bic pens in school? That's the only kind of Bic pen, the only kind of pen was around. I don't think my dad ever said it, but he would be bound to say something like that.
28:28
Son, I'm very disappointed that you got caught stealing these Bic pens at school. I can get all the free Bic pens at work that I want.
28:34
So why you do that? Because you can take out the ink and shoot spit wads.
28:45
Had a girl named Melanie Beams. That's what we would do. I've got my spit wad shooter.
28:51
There's God. All the nations together with all their technology. It's like spit wads against God and His anointed one.
29:00
Every time, by the way, you read things that go on in the newspaper that you don't like and you think are ungodly, and this nation and this leader and everything else, you think
29:07
Psalm 2. That's the grid. Let us tear their...
29:15
That's Yahweh and His anointed. That's the first person of the Trinity and the second single out here.
29:21
Let us tear their fetters apart and cast away their cords from us. No justice, no peace.
29:27
This is liberation. But this is theological liberation. Sinful people at least can all rally around something, and that is their utter hatred for God.
29:38
And what they love in themselves, sovereignty they hate in God. God wants to repress us. We want to express ourselves.
29:44
God, don't tell us how to live. We're tired of being under your rule. We will not have this man reign over us.
29:56
This is language of cords, this twisted rope that you put around a horse to steer it, to keep it under control.
30:03
We don't want those. And by the way, how wrong could the nations be about God's tethers and God's fetters?
30:12
What does Hosea 11 say? 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.
30:23
That's how God talks about his people, Israel. How wrong they are when we hear of our
30:28
Lord Jesus. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you shall find rest for your souls, for my yoke is easy and my load is light.
30:39
But the world defies God. Instead of praising, scene two.
30:47
Act two. Rages is the first scene. And ridicules is the second. Now we go up to heaven's perspective.
30:54
The camera changes. Abrupt change of scene and mood. This is just derision.
31:01
Verse 4, 5, and 6. He who sits in the heavens, worries, sweats, refills his prescription.
31:12
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,
31:19
As for me, I have set my king on Zion, my holy hill. I mean, how puny these thoughts are of these people.
31:27
God is not anything but calm. Gulliver's travels in, what were those little creatures called?
31:41
Lilliputians. I mean, it's Lilliputians against Goliath.
31:55
Psalm 37, The wicked plots against the righteous and gnashes at him with his teeth. The Lord laughs at him, for he sees his day coming.
32:04
Notice the focus. The focus isn't how big and strong the enemies are and the issues of the day. It's who
32:10
God is, object of your faith. God here, what is He not doing? That's a good question to ask. If He is laughing, what is
32:16
He not doing? He's not shaking. He's not shivering. The text says
32:22
He sits. He's not perturbed. He's not needing a tranquilizer.
32:29
He's unmoved, undisturbed. Isaiah 18, I will look for my dwelling place quietly.
32:37
If Leviathan laughs at the shaking of a spear, how much more does God laugh? He holds him in derision.
32:48
This is language of Genesis 11. And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built.
32:55
I mean, it's comical. God sees everything anyway, but the language is so, oh yeah, they're building this rebellious tower of Babel against me and I better go down there and check and see what it's like.
33:03
Kind of scrutinize what's going on. He will speak to them, verse 5, in His anger and terrify them in His fury.
33:12
As we learned today in 2 Thessalonians 2, Jesus going to kill His enemies, kill the false
33:18
Christ. And now from verse 4, laughter, the laughter of God Himself using anthropomorphic language to derision and anger in verse 5.
33:32
From laughter to bone -chilling word. This is blitzkrieg. This is shock and awe.
33:38
This is God will intervene and if you ever for one minute thought God was a deist who wound up the earth and let it go, the deist will live no longer.
33:48
All God has to do is speak and they're paralyzed.
33:55
Powerful word speaking to them in His literally heat or burning.
34:03
We're coming to the central truth of the psalm, are we not, verse 6, but as for me, calmly, emphatically, but, emphasis in the
34:10
Hebrew, but for me, I have installed my King upon Zion, my holy mountain.
34:17
I've already had by divine appointment this great, of course, as we would know, the Son of God, the
34:23
Son of Man. You men might start it, God's going to finish it. I've already installed a special leader in office.
34:33
Rest assured, be calm. Scene 1 rages, scene 2 ridicules, scene 3 rains, rains.
34:44
Now the Lord's anointed speaks, I will surely tell of the decree, the
34:52
Lord said to me, this is the Son recalling the Father's words,
34:57
I will tell of the decree, the Lord said to me, you are my Son, this is our Hebrews 5 forge, you are my
35:06
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 the rod of iron, and dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel.
35:21
God's name is important, God's name is to be glorified, and God will not share His glory with another.
35:28
And what does it say in verse 7, I will tell of the decree, He has the rights to do it,
35:36
He has the legal rights to do it, and He has this divinely ordained matter called the decree, it's where we get the word engraved, this is engraved, it's etched in stone, like you know when you're a kid, and you walk over and dad's putting the sidewalk on, and he's filling the cement and everything else, and you're like, dad could we pretty please, pretty please, pretty please put our hand print in there, dad says no, so you sneak down in the middle of the night and do it anyway, and then you get your spitwad shooter out, but it's engraved, it's etched, it's permanent, it's not going away, this is right from 2
36:14
Samuel chapter 7, this is language of coronation and resurrection,
36:21
Acts chapter 13, that God has fulfilled this promise to our children, and that He raised up Jesus, as it is also written in the second
36:30
Psalm, you are my son, today I have begotten you, and if you have someone who's going to be the heir of all things, look at verse 8, ask of me and I will surely give the nations, these rebellious nations even, as thine inheritance, your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession,
36:53
I'm going to give you everything, back in the day if you were a powerful king, and your son would ask you for something, you could just give him everything you wanted, and he gives everything to the son, of course except we know it's through the cross, this is a lot different than when
37:11
Jesus was in the wilderness, and Satan said everything's yours, take it all, just don't go to the cross,
37:17
Jesus the son knows it's through the cross, cross then glory, suffering then glory, and look at this language here, verse 9, so poetic, so fascinating, you shall break them with a rod of iron, and dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel, they've even got studies from Egypt, and if you want to coronate the king's reign, you give him a bunch of earthen vessels, pots, pottery, vases, cups, bowls, and then he gets out his steel rod, and he smashes them all, signifying he has rule and reign, over the pottery of Egypt, over the pottery of the country of Moab, over the pottery of Ammon, etc, shattering, dashing them to pieces,
38:03
I just think, just quickly off the top of my head, was that not true of Herod, when he said,
38:08
I am God, worship me, and immediately he gets worms, and dies, long is the line of the deaths, and eternal deaths of those who defy
38:21
God, and now we come to the final scene, one of the things you ought to realize in theology is this, when you learn something about God, there should be a response, here's the response, rages, ridicules, reigns, a response, are rages, ridicules, reigns, and repent, in light of this, in light of God being
38:50
God, in light of God having his son installed in the heavens, in light of no matter what the nations do,
38:55
Jesus will reign as king of kings, and come back, Revelation 19, what is the response for these nations, and all those in the nation, verses 10, 11, and 12, there are five commands, let me give you those five, the first command, is in verse 10, be wise, now therefore
39:20
O kings, be wise, and do you notice, now therefore, that's a time element, is it not, today is the day of salvation, repent today, this could be your last day, and you give an account for your soul today, so be wise, knowing that God has made you, and you will stand before him, you need someone, who's pleasing to the father, who could act on your behalf, who's this son that we've talked about, in verses 6, 7, 8, and 9, be wise, and I will tell you, congregation, if you're
40:05
Christians, all these things you have done, because God has graced you to do, but if you're not a
40:11
Christian, this is your response, that you must do, this is the equivalent of repent and believe, the risen savior, the first one is, be wise, and by the way, it's got the
40:26
Hebrew word of ponder, and give attention to, how can you be wise, if you're just on to the next thing, it's like watching a
40:35
TV show, and every two seconds, the camera angle changes, and it just teaches you, not to pay attention, that's
40:41
Neil Postman, 1984, New York, if you want to learn, how to not pay attention, he didn't even know about iPhones at the time, watch
40:48
TV, so if you're always busy, and you never think, and you never just sit and think, over by the lake, saying you know, one day
40:54
I'll die, and then stand before God, then what, that's not wisdom, wisdom says, you know, I ought to probably consider my soul,
41:00
I consider my lawn, I consider what I'm going to eat today, I consider my 401k, I consider which doctor
41:06
I go to, what about my soul, and if you don't consider that, you're not wise, so stop, and think, and be wise, give attention to, when's the last time you thought,
41:19
I know it's not going to be good, and I wish it wasn't true, and my wife and my four kids, will come over to the casket, and there's daddy's body right there, but my soul isn't in there, my soul is where, standing before God, with my mediator's perfect work, so I have entrance into God's kingdom, because of what
41:46
Jesus did, or away from me, all you who practice lawlessness, that day is coming, who wants to think about it, nobody, we can't even say the word death, can we not, passed away, kicked the bucket, gone on, went to sleep, flew away,
42:04
God is real, and you will stand before God one day, so be wise, that's the first response, the second response, if it could get more of a stern warning, it actually does, it says in verse 10, be warned, oh rulers of the earth, be warned,
42:27
I'm not going to get into military, mistakes that we've made overseas,
42:33
I don't know anything about it, but when it seems to me, we tell a village, you know what, you got 48 hours, to get away from these, special manufacturing places, or we're going to bomb them, it seems like it does, a disservice to our objective, we don't know when the bombs, are coming in spiritually, so be warned right now, once a month at home in Nebraska, we had the tornado alert, go on on Saturday, of all days,
43:01
Saturday, here warning, red alert, pay attention, command three, do you see it in verse 11, serve the
43:10
Lord with fear, another translation is, worship the Lord with reverence, this means to just get low, get down, bow down, you don't have to literally bow down, but you could out of awe, out of reverence, with a little fear mixed in, just like you would a king, number four, rejoice with trembling, that's odd isn't it, here's an imperative in the
43:40
Hebrew, a plural, these are all for peoples, but peoples are made up of people, so it could be very individual for you as well, rejoice with trembling,
43:50
I mean if you went before a king, that would actually happen, and if you were in the king's presence, you would have a rejoicing,
43:57
I'm in the king's presence, but I would be on my face, because it's such a great king, this is
44:04
Habakkuk three, I heard in my inward parts trembled, at the sound my lips quivered, decay enters my bones, and in my place
44:11
I tremble, because I must wait quietly, for the day of distress, for the people to arise, who will invade us, yet,
44:19
I will exalt in the Lord, I will rejoice in the God of my salvation, and then finally command number five, it's found in verse twelve, and the
44:29
ESV reads, kiss the son, NAS says do homage to the son, why, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled, his wrath can flare up in a moment, justly so, righteously so, and so this language here, is the one of homage, and worship, which could include back in the day, a king would put his hand out, and you could kiss his hand, or kiss his ring, or you could kiss his feet, this is a submissive sign, this is an homage sign, a showing respect sign, this is first Kings nineteen, yet I will leave seven thousand in Israel, all the knees that have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth that has not kissed him, this is the language of Luke seven, behold there was a woman in the city, who was a sinner, when she learned that he was reclining at the table, in the
45:29
Pharisees 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 her hair of her head, and kissing his feet, and anointing them with perfume, instead of revolting, and rebelling against the sun, it is worshiping the sun, and honoring the sun, and pledging allegiance to the sun, through faith, and beloved
46:04
I'm so glad it doesn't end there, it ends like Psalm one one begins, blessed, blessed, oh how rewarding it is to follow this
46:16
God, how rewarding the life, how envious it will be to other people, that's the idea of blessed, it's just not happy go lucky, it's a deep spiritual happiness, how blessed are all who take refuge in him, that's your only hope, is take refuge in him, because no one can stand before his indignation, no one can endure his burning anger,
46:41
Nahum chapter one, and not just blessed, but how blessed, there's an emphasis there in the original language, how blessed, and so I have to ask you the question, when you
46:54
Christian see the world around you, you need to see it through the lens of Psalm two, because the focus of Psalm two, is
47:02
Jesus Christ the anointed one, and seeing Jesus as the anointed king, the
47:07
Messiah, you'll also understand New Testament theology, up to and including Hebrews chapter one, two, three, and four, that Jesus is the son, we're gonna see next time he's more than the son, he's a priest, but he is in fact a son,
47:24
Psalm two, I did not know, that when it comes to welding, there is oxy fuel welding, there is shielded metal arc welding, there is gas tungsten arc welding, gas metal arc welding, flux cord arc welding, submerged arc welding, electro slag welding, electric resistance welding, can you think of any others
47:59
Andrew? That was good, you know what he said? The list could go on, but the only kind of welding
48:13
I can see in the New Testament, is when God wants to take this word, verse five
48:19
B and six, from Psalm two and Psalm 110, and forge them together, stronger together even than apart, and for you practically
48:30
Christian, if you want God to work in your life, and become more sanctified, you'd like to be a better husband, better wife, better communicator, better evangelist, better at the one and others, there's only one instrument for sanctification, that the
48:43
Holy Spirit uses, he will use that word to sanctify, sanctify them in truth, your word is true, no wonder
48:55
David said, I hid your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you,
49:01
Psalm two every day, Psalm 110 every day, forge together in your thinking, and next time
49:07
I'm in the pulpit, we'll look at Psalm 110, let's pray, I thank you father for your word,
49:14
I thank you that we have had a day today, in song where we've considered the
49:19
Jesus Christ, who died on Calvary, and was raised from the dead, who shed his blood for our forgiveness, because he loves sinners, you love sinners, that's why you sent
49:30
Jesus, because you loved sinners, you didn't begin to love us, when Jesus died for us, you loved us, and sent him to die for us, so I pray for the
49:39
Christians today, not only for Miss Tealock, but for all of us, that we could be encouraged to know, that no matter what goes on in the world this week, with current events, from CNN to Fox, your son reigns, and we're thankful that he reigned in our hearts too, because you made us alive in Christ Jesus, and gave us saving faith, father if there's anyone here today, who is not a
50:02
Christian, and they're trusting in their own goodness, I pray that you would give them wisdom, warning, fear, so that they might worship the son, lest he be angry, and they perish in the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled, but God you love to save sinners, so save them today in Jesus name,