Book of Psalms - Psa. 2, Vs. 9-12 (08/14/2022)

Psalm 2 and the Decree of the Son

We're ready to go. Well, good morning. We are picking up where we left off last week. I get to do a couple of weeks in a row here. I asked Ben to let me do that so that I can make up some ground and we can hopefully finish Psalm chapter 2 before I have to go on a trip for work and I'll be missing a Sunday or two.

Why don't we start with a word of prayer this morning and then we'll recap last week. Heavenly Father, Lord, we just thank you so much for your word. We thank you for the Psalms in particular. They are truly just rich with blessings.

We get to see the struggle of David and how he turns to you in times of need and in uncertain times when things get scary. He just puts his faith and trust in you. And Father, we thank you for that example.

We hope and pray that we will follow that example. And Father, we also thank you for the perfect example you gave us in your son, Jesus Christ, who in his darkest hours was completely dependent upon you.

Father, we just ask that you help us to depend on him and on your Holy Spirit when things get rough for us. And Father, we just ask that you help us to prepare ourselves for those times. We love you and we thank you.

It's in Jesus' name we ask these things. Amen. All right. So we've been going through Psalm chapter 2 and we saw last week where the place we left off was in verse, I believe it was 7. Well, actually it's verse 8.

So we saw that the father, in response to the heathen raging, he starts off with a laugh and a flaring in the nostrils and he begins to speak unto them in his wrath. And it's a terrifying thing that he begins to speak to them in the way that he does.

And his first words in response are, yet. Like, you've got a plan, but that doesn't matter because my plan has already been set in motion. And he says that he set his king upon his holy hill of Zion. And then we see the psalm take a dramatic turn to the king.

And it's the son, the anointed king and son of God, Jesus Christ. And he stands up and gives the decree that the Lord says unto him. My first question this morning is, who is he decreeing to? Any answers?

Well, it is a decree and decrees go out across the entire land, right? So there's certainly an argument to be said that this is for everyone to hear. And we know it's in the in the Lord's word. So the scripture is written for our benefit, but he is speaking to a specific group.

And what group would that be? Okay. So this, so we have David who's pinning the psalm and he is basically pinning the words of Jesus Christ. And he is declaring the decree that the father has given to him.

Right. But who is he declaring that decree to? Yes, the decree is... Right. Okay. So Ben's answer is that essentially we have Jesus standing up as king and declaring to the entire world, hey, I'm boss, you know?

And that's certainly the case. I think it would be absolutely fine to say this is to everyone. However, I want you to take note in who is being responded to because you know how you can talk to somebody and you're speaking specifically with one person, but in a manner in which everyone should hear what you're saying, right?

Right. So we have here the people who are raging, right? And, or the people imagining a vain thing, kings of the earth are setting themselves against the Lord and against his anointed saying, let us break their bands asunder and cast away their cords from us.

And the Lord begins to respond and he does the threatening laugh and the flaring of the nostrils. And then he speaks unto them in his wrath, right? So what's happening is there is a response from God to the raging, rebellious people.

And his response is your plan doesn't count. Mine does. And it's already been set in place. You can't stop it because it's already accomplished. It's that I have set my king upon my holy hill and here he is, right?

And so then when Jesus stands up and declares the decree, yes, it is for everyone and every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess. But it's still kind of in response to, Hey, you raging rebellious people now hear what the law is, the law that you hope to cast away from you, the restraint that you have upon you, that you're wanting to break and get off of you.

It's too late. I'm the enforcer of that restraint. So while it is for everyone, because we are all subject to the king, it is a response specifically to those who would think to rebel. And so we have here Jesus declaring the decree.

And last week we left off with the thought of what is that decree? Well, he says that the father said, you are my son and I have begotten thee, which means I have brought you forth. And then he says, ask of me.

And the last thought I left you with last week was think about that, that God asks his king or his anointed son. He says, ask of me what you will, but he doesn't just wait for an answer. He tells him what he's going to give him when you, when he asks.

We had a couple of examples last week where we saw a king say, ask of me what you will. And then he waits for the answer. Uh, one was the king who the king Herod who ultimately beheaded John the Baptist.

He didn't know what he was going to be asked. So it was just this open-ended thing like, Hey, I'll give you up to half my kingdom. What do you want? What? The head of John the Baptist. Yikes. Right. And then we had an example of, I believe it was, uh, Esther.

They were looking at Esther. She, uh, comes to the king and risks her life to save her people. And the king says, ask of me what you will. And she invites him and Haman, his right-hand man to dinner.

And, and in both cases, the Kings had no clue what was going to be asked. But in this case, the father says, ask of me what you will. And here's what I'm going to do when you ask me. And the reason is the father already knows what will be asked by the son because the son will always ask within the will of the father.

The son will always ask exactly what he should ask. And the father will grant it because the father can do no other thing, but his will, he has to do as well. He has to stay true to his nature. Um, we have some people who would dare to try to confuse God's children by saying, well, is God all powerful?

And we of course say, yes, of course he is. And then they respond, well, if he's so powerful, could he make a rock so big that he couldn't move it? And some of God's children get confused with that. Well, now all of a sudden I'm trapped logically.

And one of the most wonderful answers I've ever heard came from my father-in-law. And it was no, just simply no, he can't. And at first that bothered me. What do you mean? No, he can't like that because the response that we get from those who would, they say is always, well, if he can't do it, then he's not all powerful.

But what that means is that they've bought into a false presupposition, which is if you're all powerful, you can do anything. But there are many things that God can't do. He can't lie. He can't cheat.

He can't steal. He can't go against his own nature. So there are things that God can't do, but that doesn't mean he's not all powerful. It just means that we have defined all powerful the wrong way. If we say that God is all powerful, it doesn't mean he can do anything.

It means he is the most powerful being in all the universe or even outside the universe. We can't even say it's in the universe. He created it, right? So to say that God is all powerful means that he is the most powerful.

It's a bit of a bunny trail there, but the point is he will never do anything against his will. He's told us that. So when he tells the son, ask of me and I will perform X, Y, Z, he's saying, you're going to ask within my will and it's going to be done.

And there's no way he cannot do it because he wouldn't be God if he didn't do it. Because he has to do what his will is and the son will ask within the will every time. So something that I want to bring to your attention, let's see here, is the application that we have here.

Because if you'll remember, we have this psalm being written by King David, but it is the words of Jesus Christ and the psalm is actually about the father and his son, Jesus Christ. But there is an application to King David, if you'll remember that we've been kind of noticing that throughout, that King David was also anointed and he was also a son, not the begotten son in the way in which we think of begotten, that's only Jesus Christ, but he is begotten in the sense that he was brought forth.

And we also saw that there is a further application beyond David in our own lives, and that is that we are born of God, meaning we are brought forth out of sin into newness of life, and we also are anointed.

And we have an example of this where we can see that we are anointed. We'll see that in 1 John 2, verse 20. 1 John 2, verse 20. And it says, But ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things.

The word for unction here is chrisma. We've seen this word before in our study. It means to smear or anoint. And notice that we have this anointing from the Holy One, right? This anointing comes from the Godhead.

Specifically, it comes from the Holy Spirit who indwells us, but we are anointed in Christ, right? This is His Spirit. So we are also anointed. And because of this, as children who are born of God, we have an application here as well.

So I want you to stay in 1 John 2, and I want you to go up to verse 7 real quick. And in verse 7, I want to explore how this thing kind of works. So, Brethren, I write no new commandment unto you, but an old commandment, which ye have heard, which ye have from the beginning.

Okay. So John is writing an old commandment. This isn't new, something old. And we've had it from the beginning. What is the commandment? Tells us next. It says, The old commandment is the word which ye have heard from the beginning.

It's the word, the word of God. Okay. Move back down. Keep in mind that we have the word of God as our old commandment. We are anointed in Christ and our children of the Lord. Go to verse 23 in this same chapter.

I kind of went a little bit out of order. I meant to give you verse 7 and then verse 20, but it just kind of flowed out the other way today. So that's right. Sorry for the skipping around here. Verse 23, whosoever denieth the son, the same hath not the father, but he that acknowledgeth the son hath the father also.

We're going to break this verse down a little bit. We're going to break down verse 23 here. The word for acknowledge, I always try to do these Greeks and the Hebrew words, and I butcher them. So I apologize in advance.

I've never taken any kind of Greek or Hebrew classes. I just look in blue letter Bible and then I'll play the little sound bite that will tell me how to say it. But this, I believe, is pronounced homologeo, which means to agree with or consent to.

So the word for acknowledge, so if you acknowledge the son, it means you homologeo, you agree with the son or you consent to the son. The word for hath in verse 23, where it says, if you acknowledge the son, you hath the father also.

The word hath is echeo. It's almost like you got some phlegm in your throat when you say that one. Echeo. I had to listen to the sound bite like three times to make sure I was hearing that one right. In fact, in my notes, I put sounds like phlegm.

It has two meanings and typically, as instructed by my father-in-law, you're supposed to pick out a meaning, which one applies the best. But the way these two meanings are presented, they both apply really well, but in two very different ways that agree.

So there's no conflicting here, and I think you'll see what I mean. The first meaning of this word hath, meaning that you have the father, the first meaning is to hold. I want you to imagine for a second, if you agree with the son, if you consent to the son, you hold the father.

And the word hold is to hold in hand, to possess the mind of, and it's in reference to agitating emotions. So think about that. If you agree with the son or you consent to the son, you hold the mind of the father and his emotions.

It's almost, it sounds very similar to how we would describe holding someone's heart, right? Like when you tell someone you have my heart, what are you saying? You're saying, you've got, my thoughts are about you continuously, and I kind of get emotional about the way I think about you, right?

So when we say that you have my heart, there's a very close connection there. I would say that Katie has my heart, and when I think about what I'm thinking about, it's often, is Katie having a good time?

Is she happy today? Is her life going well today? And if it's not, I kind of get emotional about it. I'm like, what can I do to fix things for Katie? I want life to be good for Katie. So she holds my heart.

And so this first meaning of the word hath in verse 23 of 1 John chapter 2 is, if you agree with the son and you consent to the son, you hold the mind and heart of the father. That makes a lot of sense to us, doesn't it?

But there's this second meaning to this word, and that is to possess. And we can't necessarily possess the father like we would an item, but I want you to see how this word possess is described. It's used of those joined by anyone or to anyone by the bonds of natural blood or marriage.

And there's further layers to that. This meaning of possession is you are bound by blood or marriage. It can also mean by duty, by law. And so there's this binding that occurs. But the two that stood out of all the different bindings, I think all could apply if you really contemplate the nature of the father, because he is bound by his word, right?

And anything he says that he will do, he will do so. There is a bit of a law binding there, a duty binding. But the two that really stood out to me were a binding by natural blood and a binding by marriage.

So if I agree with the son, and I consent to the son, I am bound to the father by blood or by marriage. And that really made me go, how? How does this work? And how does it relate to Psalm chapter two?

Well, if we think about the fact that Psalm chapter two is Jesus Christ's words and speaking of his relationship with the father and how that gives him authority over the earth, and we think of the application that that had in King David's life as the anointed king and as a son of God, then we also have to go, okay, there is a relationship with David that gives him authority.

But also we've seen time and time again, we are children of the Lord. And as such, we are given authority as priest kings, if you would, over our scenarios, over our situations. But that authority is always rooted in the relationship we have with Christ.

And in some way, our relationship because of Christ with the father. And I think that's what this is getting at. So first John chapter two, I'll read the verse again, verse 23, whosoever denieth the son, which means to reject, by the way, does not agree.

If you don't agree with the son, the same hath not the father. So they don't hold the father. If you reject the son, you don't hold the father, but he that acknowledgeth the son, that's homo legao. If you agree to or agree with or consent to the son, you hold the mind and heart of the father, but you also have a blood relation or a marriage relation with the father.

And I want to explore that a little bit today. How does that work? Well, we get to see the answer to that in verse 24, right? The very next verse. So verse 24 says, let that therefore abide in you, which ye have heard from the beginning.

Remember verse seven? All right. So this is telling us, if you consent to the son, you hold the heart and mind of the father. So let what you've heard from the beginning, abide in you. Who remembers what we heard from the beginning?

It's in verse seven. The old commandment, which is what? The word. Okay. Now we're getting somewhere. How do I hold the heart and mind of the father? I have to consent or agree with the son. How do I do that?

I have to abide in the word or rather I have to let the word abide in me. All right. So it says that right here in verse 24, let that therefore abide in you, which you have heard from the beginning. If that which you have heard from the beginning shall remain in you, the same word remain there.

It's a, it's the same word for abide. So if it does abide in you, ye also shall continue in the son and in the father. All right. John chapter 15, turn there with me real quick. How exactly does letting the word of God abide in me?

How does that exactly give me a blood relationship or a marriage relationship with the father? Because here it kind of gets close. It kind of shows us that if God's word abides in me, then I will continue in the son.

And I will also continue with the father. That doesn't really describe to me a blood relationship or a marriage relationship. It kind of describes to me that we are in agreement and that we're continuing along, but watch what we find in John chapter 15.

The Anointing of Believers in 1 John 2

This is really cool. John chapter 15, somebody read verse. Oh man, there's just so much good here. Let's just start in verse one and go through verse seven. Somebody want to read that for me? Oh, maybe I should read it for the sake of the online people.

That's a good idea. Okay. So John chapter 15 verse one, I am the true vine and my father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit, he taketh away. And every branch that beareth fruit, he purges it that it may bring forth more fruit.

Now you are clean through the word, which I have spoken unto you. There's that word. It's the word. And then it says, abide in me and I in you as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine.

No more can ye except you abide in me. Now, is this talking about the word abiding in me or me abiding in Jesus? This is right now, it's showing me that I'm supposed to abide in Jesus, who by the way, according to was it John one, one is the word and the word became flesh, right?

In the beginning was the word and the word was God. The word was with God and the word was God. And the word became flesh and dwelt among men, right? We learned that from the first chapter of John. Well, and that's where we're getting, right?

So I am the vine, ye are the branches. He that abideth in me and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit for without me, you can do nothing. If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch and is withered and men gather them and cast them into the fire and they are burned.

And here's the one that really is the kicker. This is cool. Verse seven, if ye abide in me and my words abide in you, that's where the two get joined. And the word and in this verse is a copulative term, which means they kind of go, they go together.

Like if, if I abide in Christ, as a result, what's going to happen is his words are going to abide in me. They kind of come as a package deal. All right. And look at what the next part says. You shall ask what you will and it shall be done unto you.

What does that sound like? Ask of me and I will. Just like in Psalm chapter two, when the father is talking to the son, ask of me what, what you will, or ask of me. And I will give unto thee the heathen for thine inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession.

So when we see the son asking perfectly within the will of the father, we know the father is going to grant the wishes of the son because the two are one. We as God's children abiding in Christ and in Christ's words abiding in us, give us a similar relationship to the father.

Why? And how does that work? Because if Christ's words abide in us, it's because we abide in him. So when the father hears our prayers, he's seeing his son who he does have a blood relationship with. And as the bride of Christ, there is a marriage relationship there as well.

Right? So what does this mean? This means that we hold the heart and mind of the father because he sees his son. That's so cool. How does it work? Well, we have to put our faith and trust in Christ and let his words abide in us.

They kind of go hand in hand. We can say I love and trust Christ, but if we aren't steeping ourselves in the word, are we really loving and trusting him? Because he says that my word shall abide in you.

And yes, he will write his law on our hearts, but we should really kind of be looking to have his words abide in us or continue in us in a way which will require study. It will require that we get into the word more often.

And it's not always easy. Sometimes I know life can get in the way we're busy. We've got stuff going on at work, but any little amount of time that we can spend just getting God's word into our minds so that we dwell on it, it hearkens back to Psalm chapter one.

Right? We will be like trees planted by the rivers of water. Water is what? It's the word of God. Right? It describes the holy man in Psalm chapter one is a man who meditates on the law of the Lord. Right?

And so we're supposed to meditate on it day and night. So it's really cool what we're seeing happen in Psalm chapter two. We're seeing Christ stand up and declare the decree. And the first part of the decree is the relationship he has with the father.

The next part of the decree is whatever I ask, he's going to do. And then he continues to tell his enemies, the rebellion, what he can ask because the father's already said, just say the word. He doesn't even say, just ask whatever you will.

And I'll wait and see what you want. The father already knows what the son wants. And he says, just say the word and it's going to happen. And he continues to tell them what that word is. So let's go on ahead and get into that.

I just wanted to explore for a minute, the fact that we have access to the father, like the son has access to the father. He's given us that those who believe on his name are given the power to become what sons of God.

So we have access to the father and he had, we have his heart. We have his mind because we have his son. We are, we are abiding in Jesus and his words abide in us. And so when the father looks at us, his, his emotions are stirred up.

His thoughts are continually towards us. So of course, he's going to give us what we ask because if the Lord's words are abiding in us, we are going to ask according to his will. So let's look at what is the ask.

And I think this is really cool because we see Jesus say, ask of me and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance. I want you to think for a moment, who is he talking to again? Yes, it's a decree to everyone, but who's it kind of directed at?

When Jesus declares the decree, it's decreed to everyone, but he's speaking to a specific group. Who remembers? Yes, those who are setting themselves against the Lord and against his anointed. We can't lose fact.

We can't lose sight rather of how this whole chapter started. Why did the heathen rage and the people imagine a vain thing? Kings of the earth set themselves and rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against his anointed saying, right?

And they, they, they declare their plan. God laughs and says, no, my plan was already set in place. Here's my plan. It's my King, my anointed King and son, Jesus stands up and declares the decree to all the land.

That's you and me and everybody, but he's directing it at the rebellion. And I think this is so cool because Jesus then says, ask of me and I will give to be the heathen for thine inheritance. So all of you who are rebelling, I own you.

That's literally what he's saying. I own you because the father gave you to me. Boom. That's, there is absolutely no stronger way to say you are defeated that I can think of. And what's interesting is man has kind of picked up on this, on this terminology in sports, especially, right?

So like if you're playing against another team and you want to make the other team know that you are confidently in charge of the game, we often will use the phrase I owned you, right? Like, where did that come from?

I always wonder like, what does that mean? I owned you, but I never realized that Jesus is the first one to do this. Like I totally own you. You can't do anything about this. You can't, you can't rebel against me because you are my possession.

There's nothing that you can do. Now, when we say it, we often will find ourselves in a position just a few minutes later where we're losing the game. But when Jesus says it, he never loses the game because when he says it, it's true.

He says, ask of me and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. Look what happens next. He continues to tell the rebellion what this ownership means.

Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron. Thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel. Those who will not bend will break. If you do not bend the knee to Jesus, you will break by his rod. And that's what he's saying.

This is, he's just reminding them of the law that they hoped to cast off from them and saying, if you don't bend, you're going to break, period. So when a potter breaks his vessel, it is not for the purpose of continuing to use the vessel, by the way.

When a potter breaks his vessel and smashes it, it's because it's useless at that point. And it's not something that he plans to continue to use. So the imagery there is that he's going to break them.

He's going to smash them into pieces like a potter's vessel. Be wise now, therefore. I think it's interesting because the threats at this point, they go from direct, like you're going to get smashed to, okay, now you know I am in charge, I own you, and you're going to be smashed to, okay, now that I've declared the decree, let's just give you a bit of a warning and some instruction here.

Be wise. Be wise now, therefore. Isn't it interesting that it says now? It's like, you got to get wise, smarten up right now. This isn't a, you're going to come around eventually. It's get in line or be smashed.

Be wise now, therefore, O ye kings, be instructed, ye judges of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling. Now I have to give Spurgeon credit for this next thing. I think it's pretty cool.

He says that fear without joy is torture. And it's interesting here that God, he instructs them to serve the Lord with fear and then also rejoice with trembling. He joins the two, like don't just be afraid, serve with fear, and also glory in it a little bit, like be happy about it.

Because if you don't serve with fear, you're going to be smashed. But if you don't serve with fear and are happy about it, this is basically torture. And what we do know is that everyone is going to serve the Lord.

One of the coolest things that Brother Otis ever taught us is that everything serves God. Everything. Everyone. Satan himself doesn't even realize it maybe, but he's serving the purposes of God. He has a purpose.

He has a task. Things are delegated to him. He thinks he's going to overthrow the hierarchy of Jesus Christ and his Father. He's part of what causes people to rage and imagine vain things, but he's just serving a purpose.

He's owned. And so it says, Be wise now, therefore, O ye kings. Be instructed, ye judges of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son. Now this is an interesting phrase here.

Kiss the Son. Because one thing that I was grappling with in Psalm 2 is that we're talking about people who are rebelling. People who don't want Jesus. And I have a tendency to go, Oh, those are the goats.

Right? And they're never going to be saved. Right? But think about the Apostle Paul. He certainly was rebelling. He certainly was raging against the Lord and his anointed until God woke him up and said, What are you doing?

Why do you persecute me? Right? And he changed Saul's sides. Right? He said, No, you're on the wrong side here. You're supposed to be on my side. So I have to be careful in assuming that this is all just the goats he's talking to.

These are the people who are rebelling. It's the world system. It's the leaders of the world system. It's the influential people of the world system. We saw that. But he gives instruction, which almost doubles as an invitation.

Okay, you have a chance. Bend the knee. Don't be broken. Be instructed and do it now. And it says kiss the Son. So that is the phrase that made me go, All right, maybe it's not just the goats because the goats will never really kiss the Son, will they?

Yes, sir. It's the decree sent out to all the land. I'm going to repeat that for those of you online. So David said this is a good example of the universal call. This is going out like the decree to the whole land.

Come to the Son. Kiss the Son. It doesn't mean that they're all going to do it. It's just saying this is the opportunity. This opportunity is going to result as God saving some of his children, all of his children.

He's going to save all of his children, and it's going to condemn the world, right? Just like we read in Hebrews 11, Noah, who built an ark. And by building the ark, he saved his family and condemned the world, right?

That's a picture of what we see here. And that is that the ark was there. Everyone could have run from man's viewpoint. They all could have run and gotten into the ark. But only those who God chose actually got into the ark.

So same sort of thing. Is that kind of what you're talking about? So what's interesting is this idea of kiss the Son. Think about the imagery we're seeing. It's a king. It's a king declaring a decree.

And when a king has his enemies come before him, and you see this in the movie sometimes, one of the first things he might say is yield, right? Yield or die. And the way they show that they have yielded is they kiss the signet on his ring, right?

That shows, okay, I submit. And so this is, like David said, it's the effect, the, what did you call it? The universal call. The universal call to everyone. You have a chance. Kiss the ring, because if you don't kiss it, you're going to be hit with the rod, right?