The Dogs Bark and King Jesus Reigns

LaRue Baptist Church, OH

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The Old Testament reading this morning is in Isaiah chapter 9, verses 6 -7.

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For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder and his name shall be called

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Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

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Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end. On the throne of David and over his kingdom to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore.

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The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this. New Testament reading is in Acts chapter 4, verses 24 -31.

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When they heard it, they lifted their voices together to God and said, Sovereign Lord, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them?

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Who through the mouth of our father David, your servant, said by the Holy Spirit, Why did the

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Gentiles rage and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers were gathered together against the

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Lord and against his anointed. For truly in this city they were gathered together against your holy servant

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Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the people of Israel.

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To do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place. And now, Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness, while you stretch out your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant

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Jesus. And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the

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Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness. You may be seated.

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It was a joy of mine to worship with you this morning. I ask that you would open your Bibles to Psalm chapter 2, please.

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Psalm chapter 2. We'll also be in Matthew chapter 2 as well.

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Let me read the text. Psalm chapter 2. Why did the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain?

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The kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against his

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Messiah, saying, Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us.

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He who sits in the heavens laughs. The Lord holds them in derision.

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Then he will speak to them in his wrath and terrify them in his fury, saying,

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As for me, I have set my king on Zion, my holy hill, and I will tell the decree.

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The Lord said to me, You are my son. Today I have begotten you. Ask of me and I will make the nations your heritage and the ends of the earth your possession.

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You shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel.

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Now therefore, O kings, be wise. Be warned, O rulers of the earth.

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Serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest he be angry and you perish in the way.

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For his wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are all who take refuge in him.

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Our Lord in heaven, I thank you for the word of God opened up before us. I thank you for this Advent season. God, it's such a glorious thing to look at Jesus Christ.

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We look at him in all different kinds of ways. As a redeemer, as one who has came as a baby and grew up and lived a righteous life and died a sinner's death so that we can be made right as he was righteous and he can gain our death or our sins.

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I thank you, Lord, that you raised him on the third day and we can see him in his resurrection at the right hand of the

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Father as he reigns even now the nations become in his heritage. It is such a glorious thing for his people to witness his reign, to witness his ministry and to see him in all sorts of different ways.

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And so we get to celebrate him this morning. We get to celebrate him this Advent season. We get to celebrate our

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Savior who has came and won the victory. Lord, what a delight it is to be here.

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I ask God if there's those before me who it is not their delight to be here, that you would change their hearts even now, even in this moment, that it would be all of our delights to have your word open up before us, to understand it, to know it and to apply it.

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And we know that that application most necessarily means repentance.

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So I ask that all these things would be our worship this morning, that we'd be Christians growing in the grace and the knowledge of the

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Lord Jesus Christ even in this moment. We praise you, in Jesus' name, amen. Well with being asked to preach

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Advent series, which I'm about to say it's going to sound like I'm not thankful, so I want to say right now I'm very thankful to do that.

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I really enjoy this season more and more as I get older. I enjoy winter and Advent season,

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Christmas all the more. And being asked to preach it though, I found myself with two conundrums, two issues.

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And the first is that we have a very strict rule in the Beebe House, I'm going to start my sermon very controversial here, but we have a very strict rule in the

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Beebe House that you do not start celebrating Christmas until the start of December. At least after Thanksgiving, it's an awful thing when people start doing it, and I know there's people in here who do it, so I know it's controversial, forgive me, but in the

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Beebe House we do not start celebrating Christmas until the first day of December at least.

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And so here we have Advent season starting at the end of November, so I had to kind of do a little wiggle room with that one.

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So that was my first conundrum here. And it's very amazing to see just how popular Christmas is, and how much it's gained popularity in the

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Western world. And I think there's reasons to that. One of them I think is the very nature of Christmas versus, what's something that we should probably,

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I hate to say it this way, but celebrate a little bit more? The birth of Jesus or the what of Jesus?

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Death. His resurrection, right? That's not that the birth of Jesus doesn't matter, but what is the very hallmark of our faith that Jesus has died for sinners and he has raised up so that we can have new life, right?

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And if any kind of holiday we should celebrate the most in the Western world who has been influenced by Christendom, it ought to be

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Easter, but why is it that Christmas is so popular that we see people celebrating it, I don't know, sometimes

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I feel like even before Halloween. And I think in a lot of ways you can imagine, you have

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Christmas, you celebrate, or you look at a baby, that's easy, you know, it's cuddly and all that kind of stuff, especially if it's not yours, you know, it's a lot, you know, and then

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Easter, who are you looking at? You're looking at a bloody, dead man, right? You're looking at a man versus a cute, cuddly baby, and so it's a lot easier pill for someone to swallow to really enjoy

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Christmas rather than Easter, and then, of course, again, you're looking at a birth versus you're looking at a death, and that death is because of our sins.

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So you can see why Christmas kind of takes on an easier tone and it's a lot easier to really like and celebrate.

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I mean, even, it's a very peaceful holiday, it's surrounded by peace and we celebrate that, so it's much easier for us to digest and I think it's gained its popularity because of that.

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Even the hymns, a lot of the hymns that we sing, one of them, away in a manger, no crib for a bed, the little

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Lord Jesus lay down his sweet head. The stars in the sky look down where he lay, the little Lord Jesus asleep on the hay.

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I mean, that is as peaceful as it gets. You want to drink some eggnog by the fire on Christmas Eve, think about that if we can call it a hymn.

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Do we sing that hymn here, Tim? Oh, okay, we sing it, so I can't talk too bad about it. I can't talk too bad about it.

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The cattle are lowing, the poor baby wakes, but little Lord Jesus, no crying he makes. I think Jesus cried as a baby,

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I can't quite, but it sounds so peaceful. No crying he makes, I love thee, Lord Jesus, look down from the sky and stay by my cradle till morning is nigh.

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Another one, silent night, holy night, all is calm and all is bright, round yon virgin, mother and child, holy infant so tender and mild, sleep in heavenly peace.

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Oh, sleep, sleep in heavenly, heavenly peace. It's very peaceful, right? It's a pill that we can swallow very easily and celebrate, and I think it's become just so popular in that because of how easy of a pill it is to swallow.

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Now, again, my point is not to contend with the idea altogether of it being a peaceful holiday, centered around the birth of Jesus.

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I like that, I do, I enjoy it, there's nothing, Christmas Eve, staying up a little bit later and enjoying some eggnog, and really considering the peacefulness of Christmas and all the things that the season brings,

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I actually do enjoy that. And so my point is to contend with that idea per se, but to acknowledge with the coming of Jesus Christ, there is a whole lot of backstory, okay, it's not just a lovely little baby in the manger.

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There is a whole lot going on, a whole lot of backstory going on, you know, like you go into a movie right in the middle of it, and it's a detailed movie, and you're gonna try to understand it just in the middle of the movie, well,

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Jesus coming is in the middle of a great epic, an awesome story, and it's much more than that, it's true, we know.

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But there's a whole lot of backstory going on with this little baby Jesus in a manger that is not crying when he wakes up.

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Certainly, it's a backstory of peace on earth with those God is well pleased with, certainly that's involved.

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But he was born in a world enslaved in darkness, okay,

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Jesus was born in a world enslaved in darkness, a darkness that waged war even while the

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Lord of light was just a peaceful baby. There's war going on right when Jesus came as a baby, there is a lot of backstory of contention of turmoil.

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So that's my first conundrum is celebrating Christmas and the end of November, but I can get over that.

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My second conundrum here, though, is my desire to continue my study in Psalms, especially Psalm 2.

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I love Psalm 2. And so when I realize I'm thinking, I just got done with Psalm 1, I'm like, okay, Psalm 2, I'll be on it. And I'm like, oh no, it's

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Advent season. And I was like, I like Advent season, but I was like, oh no, how can I have my cake and eat it too?

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And so what I'm going to do, and I hope it's helpful, I'm not trying to force scripture to do what it's not doing, but I wanna use

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Psalm 2 to give us a greater picture of what's going on with the Advent season, with Jesus coming.

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And that's what I'm hoping to do. I hope God sees fit for me to do it well. But my desire here is to continue my study in Psalms, and especially here in Psalm 2, and to do both, right?

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To see that this is a peaceful time of baby Jesus coming, but in the midst of great turmoil.

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Turmoil is not an accident by God, but rather used by God. For us to be all the more amazed at the gospel and Christ's entrance into the world 2 ,000 years ago.

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And I think Psalm 2 really highlights the turmoil of what's going on with the reign of Jesus coming in as a baby.

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And turmoil is not only accepted by God, it's not only, well, we'll allow it, but God actually uses that turmoil against his enemies that they have started, and he makes his plan come all the way,

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I guess, completed. And I think this turmoil is best understood when we see what the world desires to do, and what

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God desires to do. What the goal of the world is, and what the goal of God is, and what's going on.

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And how this tumultuous conflict has been present since Satan's rebellion, seen at the birth, even, of Jesus.

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All the way beginning, before Jesus came, and at the birth of Jesus. And it even helps to understand this turmoil that we see in Psalms 2, it helps us to understand the whole backstory, it helps us understand the baby

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Jesus and everything, and it even helps us to understand, even in our own day, the turmoil that we face, even today.

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How many of us are very concerned and worried? How many of us had to struggle with me being a young father, having more and more kids coming?

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There are many times where I am almost crippled with fear of bringing them into this world, right?

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And I'm not the only one, I don't need to be a young dad to have that fear, there's that fear that we have, right, of the world and the way it's going, even whenever there's turmoil within our own homes and everything.

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I think even understanding the turmoil between the world and God, and what God is doing in Jesus Christ, can even define our turmoil even today in our own lives, and give meaning to it, and give us footing to step hold of, to grab hold of, to know what is going on.

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So I think this can be very helpful for us, and it can help us even in our own day. You want your life to make sense in the good and in the turmoil, okay?

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You want your life to make sense when things are going good, but when things are going very tumultuously.

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I think that's a word. If your life only makes sense when things are good for you, and you understand how

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God is there, but when there's full turmoil, you don't understand where God is, you are living a half -baked Christian life.

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We need to know where God is in the turmoil, and actually how he is sovereign behind it. So with that being said, let's take a look at Psalm 2 while keeping our eye on Matthew as well, and I hope we can kind of bring these themes together.

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This is a great peaceful time of Jesus' birth, right? But also this great turmoil that's going on between the world and God at play as it's being carried out.

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And so let's look at Psalm 2. We'll really only get one through a few verses.

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But we see here in Psalm 2, we see at the very beginning, it's asked, why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain?

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The kings of the earth, they set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together against the

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

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Right away, we're smacked right in the face with turmoil, aren't we? Right there in that first verse. The nations, it says, or people rage, it says, and they plot.

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We have the nations, the Gentiles we see in Acts, the people, they plot and they rage.

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Rage is like behavior when you're extremely angry, okay? That's rage.

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It's like your behavior when you're extremely angry. And I think, if you look, that this is contrasted, this rage is contrasted to the one who is in a state of delight.

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If you remember in chapter 1, verse 2 of Psalms, I think they're contrasting these people here. If you remember back in chapter 1 of Psalms, verse 2, but his delight is in the law of the

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Lord, right? So contrasted with those who take delight in the law of the Lord in which you're not raging at all, we have these people who do not delight in the law of the

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Lord and they're raging. We have people here, people of the world, people of the nations, they are raging and they're setting themselves up as people who are not in accordance with the law of the

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Lord. Even if you look at that word plot, plot, it's actually the same word that we see in chapter 1 of Psalms, Psalm 1, and verse 2 with meditate.

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You see in chapter 1, you remember verse 2, and this man on his law, the blessed one, the blessed man on his law, you see at the end of verse 2, he meditates day and night.

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That word meditate is actually the same word as plot. It can be used depending on the context. But I do think there's something going on here in which they're being contrasted here.

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The blessed man who loves the law of the Lord, it's his delight who meditates upon it is contrasted with those of the world who do not want the law of the

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Lord. In fact, they rage against it. They're angry against it. And instead, they plot.

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They don't meditate on the Lord's, on his law, but instead they plot against the

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Lord. There's a contrast that's going on here right before our very eyes.

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That's the turmoil that we speak of is found in the fact that God has determined what makes for the blessed man and the world has rebelled against it.

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Okay, that's where the turmoil is. God has determined. He is the authority as to what makes someone blessed and happy and how someone should be, ought to be.

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And this worldly man, this worldly people have rebelled against it. So there's raging going on and there's plotting going on against the

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Lord. See, the serpent's lies and denying God's word in Genesis 3 has continued in philosophy and action through the ages.

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So I think this is a general statement of how Satan leads the world in rebellion against God, raging and plotting against his law, against his standard.

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I think that's what's going on here. And what is this plotting doing? What are they doing and they're plotting and they're raging against the law of God?

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We'll look at chapter 2 of Psalm 2, verse 3. What are they plotting?

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What are they trying to do? They're saying, let us burst their, if you remember, the

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Lord and his Messiah or his anointed one, let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords, which is like a rope, from us, right?

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And what is that? In your mind, what do you envision when you think of that? You think of someone shackled up, right? They're in prison.

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These people, they think that they are shackled up, that they're a prisoner. What do they mean? Well, I think it's continuing that contrast with the law of God.

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The law of God is supposed to be for the blessed man, for him to have joy and happiness in this world as a way to worship him.

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And what do the nations rage and plot against? What do they think the law of God does? It restricts.

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It stops me from my happiness. It stops me from what I really want to do. The law of the Lord is not a gift to us, a present to us, but rather it keeps me in bondage and enslaves me.

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I hate it. So they rage and they plot against this Lord so they can get the law of God away from them, so they can rebel against them.

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You see how the law of the Lord to the blessed man, to the one who is after Christ in his kingdom, is their delight, is a present from God.

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Thank you for showing us what you're like and what you expect from us. So through Christ, I can do it and live a life that's glorifying you.

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But to the nations and the Gentiles in the world, they look at the law of God very differently as being in prison, shackled, no freedom.

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It actually is hurting what I want for myself. You are sucking all the good that I could have,

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God. And so they rage and they plot against this God. How does that, right there, stop for a second, and I apply it today, how does that look like to your unbelieving family?

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Around Thanksgiving and Christmas, right, you have unbelievers. What is their actual issue? What's going on?

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And if I could just encourage you, do not get caught in, you hear this stuff, well, did

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Noah, could Noah's Ark really hold all those animals? And so your whole, you know, defending your faith comes by defending the fact that all those animals could fit on the

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Ark, right? And the whole time it's talking about the animals. The animals is not the issue, okay? Don't get caught in the weeds.

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That's really not the problem. That's not the unbeliever's problem. That's just one example. You could think of myriads and myriads of different issues they have in the

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Bible, and they say, well, this, that, and the other, and we're supposed to get caught in the weeds and say, oh, no, no, no, this, and we waste the whole time getting into a bunch of weed issues instead of getting to the heart.

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And what is the heart issue? They hate the authority of God, and they'll take anything they can to bash at it.

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So that's really not the issue. Don't get caught there, but try your best to get to the heart of the problem that you do not like the authority of God to tell you what's right and wrong, and you want to rebel against it.

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Now, if you show them Psalm 2, they're not going to be like, yep, that's me. But that's what's going on. They're deceived, and that's what's going on.

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So don't get lost arguing about how all the animals could have been babies, and they could have fit in there, and all that. That's fine, you know.

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I'm, you know, whatever. But don't think that that's the issue. That's not. They hate the authority of God, and they are raging against it.

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That's what's going on here. This is what's being set up before us here. 1

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John, you don't need to go there. 1 John 5, 3 through 4, For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments.

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And his commandments are not burdensome. They're not. To the Christian, you know that. You need to know that.

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To the Christian, the commandments of Christ is not burdensome. That's the very nature of being a

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Christian, is that he's changed your heart and caused your heart to love the law of the Lord. That's why you're the blessed man, right, in Psalm 1.

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His commandments are not burdensome. For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. Who hates the law of God, who it is a burden to him.

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And this is the victory that has overcome the world, our faith. Our faith in Jesus Christ makes the law of the

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Lord not a burden, not something that makes us rage, not something that makes us angry, but something that we delight in.

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But to the world who does not have faith in Christ, it causes them to rage. Plot.

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They get angry over it. They do not like God's authority. The command to obey Jesus and his law is burdensome to the rebel, but to the people of his kingdom it is our blessed delight.

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Praise God for such a miraculous work that he can do in your heart. That he would cause you to go from a rebel to rage against him, even as you claim that you're not in bondage to Satan, to delighting in his law.

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That it would no longer be a burden because of his great work. Praise God for such a thing. And then plead with your family this holiday season that they would turn away from their sins.

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Stop making up these different reasons why they don't like God. And see that you just don't like his authority over you. Jesus Christ can cause you to delight in his authority over you.

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So I think what's going on here in verses 1 -3 of Psalm 2 is, I don't think it's talking about a particular instance, but a general philosophy or goal of the world system.

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They hate the law of God and they're set against it and they're plotting against it and they're raging against it. And they're set against whom?

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Well, look at verse 2 of Psalm 2. The kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers take counsel together against the

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Lord and against his anointed. So, against the

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Lord, against the Father, right? And the anointed or Messiah, the word connotates the

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Messiah as well. This can be anyone God has set apart for special use. And we think of the

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Israel kings, right? So there's the initial fulfillment of this is most likely seen in the

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Israeli kings who were anointed by God to be a bulwark of truth against the enemy, against the nations, against the

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Gentiles. But of course, the great fulfillment, we can't help but see it. It was all pointed to Jesus Christ. He is the anointed one.

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He is what we now know him as the Messiah. He is the Messiah himself. These people are plotting against the

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Father and the Son. And this is really the whole philosophy, the whole struggle, the whole conflict that's going on in all of the

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Old Testament and in the New, but especially as we see developing in the Old Testament. And I think a great way to look at that, and I point to it often, but if you struggle with, okay, what in the world is going on in the

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Old Testament? And I talk to a lot of people and they just get so overwhelmed with the Old Testament. What is going on?

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I think a very good place for you to go to and kind of remind yourself of is Revelation 12, 1 through 6.

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Because that is, I think John, I think this is what he's doing, is he's really giving a summation of everything that's going on in the

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Old Testament. And we can see, and I point to it often, I think it's just so helpful to keep our mind grounded here.

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He says in Revelation 12, verses 1 through 6, and the agony of giving birth.

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This is Israel, right? And the whole point of the Old Testament is Israel is going to give birth to Messiah. And another sign appeared in heaven.

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Behold a great red dragon, that is a serpent, this is Satan, with the seven heads and ten horns, and on his head seven diadems.

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His tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven and cast them to the earth, these are demons that he brought down with him, and the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth.

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So that when she did give birth to her child, he might devour it. So you want to know what's going on in the Old Testament?

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Satan wants to devour the promised seed. That is what's going on. That is all that's going on in the Old Testament. So if you're getting confused, you're like, oh my goodness, just hold on to this central truth, it's all about Satan trying to destroy

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Messiah, the anointed one that's coming. The world system is at his disposal to rage and plot to destroy

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Christ. That's what's going on. But verse 5, she gave birth to a male child, one who is to rule the nations with a rod of iron, but her child was caught up to God and to his throne.

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So the general principle that shows the motive of all the world's dealings in the Old Testament and in the

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New Testament is to oppose the birth and reign of Christ. That's what's going on.

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Psalm 2, we can see that happening right here. They are raging and plotting against what God is doing in his

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Messiah, trying to break his bonds apart. Don't let him rule, don't let him reign, but rather let's destroy him.

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This is the world system. This is what they are doing. Now, again, I've already kind of alluded to it earlier.

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But, for instance, Nebuchadnezzar, when he was trying to destroy Israel, trying to destroy

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Judah, right, did he know that I am being used by Satan to destroy

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Israel so that the promised seed won't come? Did he know that? No, he's being used as a tool.

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So you have the first layer here. The first layer is the person who's actually doing it, right?

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The world, the unbeliever. Nebuchadnezzar, in this case, he is the first layer. You've got the second layer, who is

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Satan, who is controlling it for his own end, even though it's not for the end particularly of Nebuchadnezzar.

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Does that make sense? First layer, the person who's doing it. Second layer, the devil who is over it. But it's all for what the devil is wanting to do.

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This is all what's going on in all of history is to stop Christ. The devil is in control of that system.

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So he's that second layer. But the first layer, they don't know. Most of the time, they don't know they're being deceived.

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Your unbelieving friend or loved one at Thanksgiving or Christmas, they do not realize the second layer of Satan over their hatred of God and his authority.

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They don't know that. But it's true. And they don't know that all the things that they do to be disobedient to Christ and disobedient to his law is actually to stop his kingdom, to hate his kingdom, to hate his rule.

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They don't understand it in that way. But that's what's going on. That's the philosophy of the unbelieving world system.

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That is reality. So you have that first layer, you have that second layer. By the way, there's a third layer.

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In your mind, who do you think that third layer is? It's the same story, the same understanding, the same idea of what's going on in Matthew 2.

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I ask you to keep your finger there if you want to go there. Matthew 2, verse 1 through 3.

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I realize for Advent, you're supposed to go to Luke because that's when he was a legitimate baby. Here, he's a child, but you'll have to forgive me.

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We see these same kind of themes playing out in Matthew 2. We see the world philosophy and what they're trying to do to Jesus, stopping his reign even as he's a child.

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Matthew 2, verse 1. Now, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod, the king, behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem.

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These were Gentiles. These were people not of Israel coming to Jerusalem. And what did they say to King Herod, king of the

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Jews? Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? Now, why might Herod not like to hear that?

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Kings tend to like to be king. They don't typically like to share that too often. So when King Herod, who is a fraud, hears, where is this one who's been born king of the

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Jews? King Herod isn't too happy about that. He right away goes into self -defense mode to destroy this

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Messiah. He says, for we saw, the wise men said, we saw his star when it rose and we have come to worship him.

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Now, worship can be worshiping a deity or bowing down to a king. Probably a little bit of both going on there.

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But when Herod, the king, heard this, he was troubled. And all

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Jerusalem, I think he's talking about the Sadducees, the Pharisees, all those leaders in Jerusalem who don't like their rule to be messed with at all.

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When you're in control, you don't like any kind of earthquakes or any kind of thing to stop that.

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You want to just keep everything as is. And so you hear these wise men come in with all sorts, it was probably quite the caravan with wealth and everything, and they're saying, hey, where's the king of the

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Jews? We're here to worship him. And they're not referring to King Herod. So he's troubled.

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All Jerusalem is troubled. They don't like their prestige of power being threatened, right? And so the immediate angst comes from their own position of power.

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But Satan, we've got to understand, is working in that for his ultimate goal of what?

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Destroying Christ and his kingdom. Herod wants to destroy Christ for his own kingdom. But Satan is that second layer working in that to destroy

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Christ and his kingdom. That's what his objective has always been. We just saw that in Revelation 12. He's been doing it from the beginning.

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Satan is working in that. We see that in Psalm 2, that world system, right? To oppose Christ, break his shackles, it's being worked in there.

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Again, these people used by Satan may not be aware that they are being used, but that is reality.

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This is why we must be informed, by the way, of what our state was when we were in the lies of Satan and his kingdom.

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You ever notice that? Ephesians 2, 1 -3. You notice that Paul had to tell us what our state was before?

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That we were following the prince of the power, the world. We didn't know that when we were doing that.

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That's the whole point of his kingdom. Satan's kingdom is filled with lies and deception. We didn't know that, but that's what we were doing.

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Now that we're out, we're told, do you know what kingdom you're in? We're like, oh my goodness.

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Christ becomes all the more amazing, as you realize that he saved me out of that into his marvelous kingdom. The point that I'm trying to stress is that the people who are stuck in this philosophy that we see in Psalms 2, they don't realize they're in it to the full capacity.

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To the full capacity of hating Christ, hating his authority. That's the actual issue here.

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Typically, again, your unbelieving family or friend, they'll address their disobedience to Christ as, well, it's okay for me to do this.

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It's an okay. It's not wrong. Or maybe they know it's wrong, but it's not that wrong. But beloved, their disobedience is a direct disobedience to the king of glory.

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Now this is what's going on. This is what Satan is doing in that kingdom. That is what his goal and objective is.

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If we continue on in Matthew 4 -8, So Herod, assembling all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the

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Christ was to be born. And they told him, In Bethlehem of Judea, for so it was written by the prophet,

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And you, O Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah.

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For from you shall come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel. So then, with that information, Herod summoned the wise men secretly and ascertained or tried to get from them what time the star had appeared.

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And he sent them because he's trying to figure out how old this child would be and what he has to do to destroy this child and where he's at.

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And he sent these wise men to Bethlehem saying, Go and search diligently for the child, and when you have found him, bring me word that I too may come and worship him.

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Herod was lying. He did not want to worship him. He was wanting to destroy him. Now we know the end of that story.

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We know what happens. But can you imagine being with such, can you imagine being, if they understood exactly the gravity of it, can you imagine being that teenage mother of Jesus?

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Can you imagine being Joseph, a young father, and hearing and knowing, if they even did know, but if they did, can you imagine the weight of King Herod, and even if they knew the second layer of that, of the serpent and the devil trying to come and murder everyone involved in what just happened?

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Can you imagine the fear? Can you imagine the conflict within their souls? Can you imagine how scary that would be to be at the weight of the world and their hatred of this

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Messiah that was just born in Israel? Surely this poor couple has the world crashing down on them and to the full capacity that they could not endure.

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And really, we see this sort of contrast. We see this sort of almost helplessness in every age of the world, don't we?

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We have the weight of the world, we have the weight of Satan and his army and his hatred of Christ and his kingdom crashing down on the people of the kingdom, right?

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And if we just have our eyes on the situation, we can cry out that this is utterly and crippling, scary, we cannot endure this.

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If we're in this situation here, if you're Joseph, if you're Mary, if you knew all of what's coming at you with King Herod and knowing that he's led by seven, it would be too much, it would be overwhelming.

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Who can endure this, right? And I think we gotta look at it, we gotta understand that there's a third layer to these stories.

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We have the world system, we have Satan, but there is a glorious third layer. And once we understand all this coming together, it no longer is scary in that sense of you cannot endure, but it becomes glorious to see how

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God unfolds his plan. And what is that third layer? We'll look at, continue going on in the story,

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Matthew 2, nine through 12. After listening to the king, they went on their way, Matthew 2, verse nine, and behold, the star that they had seen, when it rose and went before them, until it came to rest over the place where the child was.

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And when they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy, and going into the house, they saw the child with Mary, his mother, and they fell down and they worshiped.

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Mission success, right? Then opening their treasures, they offered him gifts and gold and frankincense and myrrh.

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And at that point, they could then decide to go back to King Herod and tell him what's going on, party over. But then we see this third layer coming forth from the text and being warned in verse 12 in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed to their own country by another way.

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So we see divine intervention by God to protect his anointed one. If we continue on the story, it gets interesting too,

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Matthew 2, 13 through 15. Now, when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared, more divine intervention, protect his son, to Joseph in a dream and said, rise, take the child and his mother and flee to Egypt.

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And remain there until I tell you, for Herod is about to search for the child to destroy him. And he rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed to Egypt and remained there until the death of Herod.

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This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet out of Egypt I called my son. Now, we see divine intervention, don't we?

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We see the Lord protecting, don't we? We see that without the Lord doing that, Jesus surely would have been died.

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But we see a sovereign God who is protecting his anointed. This is my son and I will protect him and I'll protect his kingdom.

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It will be established. And so we see divine intervention. But notice another note of this third layer is that there is prophecy being fulfilled out of Egypt I called my son.

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What's significant about that? Is that not only is, it's not like God's reacting to everything.

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Oh goodness, Herod's doing this. The serpent's doing this through Herod and I gotta sit there and try to juggle all these things.

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Oh my goodness, I might lose the son here. But no, instead, even though Herod's acting against Christ, even though the serpent's acting against Christ, God uses this to fulfill his word.

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And so we understand that there's a sovereign God at play here. That not only, he's not reacting to God, but this is all according to his plan so that his story can unfold the way that he wants the story to unfold.

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We gotta understand the three layers going on here. It gives us solace. It gives us peace. Even in the midst of a tumultuous, a terrible situation, we know that there's great things working because there's indeed the first layer of the hatred of the world, the second layer of the hatred of the serpent, but there's a third layer, the wonderful care of our

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God. His plans will succeed for it's all for that end.

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We see this in great picture. If you wanna go to Acts 4 .23, they quote this psalm too, which we're gonna return and finish up in a second, but they also point to this theme that I'm trying to draw out, that although the wicked do what they do,

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God is over it all for his plan, and then it enables them to then act in a certain way that we must do today.

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Acts 4 .23, when they were released, that is Peter and John, right? They just got, they were just before the authorities of the

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Jews. They were telling them, stop doing what you're doing. They get released. They went to their friends and reported what the chief priests and the elders had said to them, and when they heard it, they didn't cower, they weren't cowered, they didn't get fearful of the dogs barking, but rather they lifted their voices together to God and said,

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Sovereign Lord, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them, who threw the mouth of our father

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David, your servant, said by the Holy Spirit, Why did the Gentiles rage in the people's plot in vain?

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Verse 26 of Acts 4. The kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers were gathered together against the

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Lord and against his anointed. For truly in this city they were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both

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Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, right? All those people working together against Christ, right?

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To do what? Whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place.

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And now there's that third beautiful layer. And now, Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness, while you stretch out your hand to heal and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant

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Jesus. And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken and they were all filled with the

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Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness. Now, the point that I'm getting at is that the church always goes through scary times.

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We always do. The church always seems like the world is creeping in. So if you feel that way about your own family, your own self, with sin and the kingdom of darkness or at large, that is nothing new, beloved.

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Turmoil is what God works through. It always feels like that. That's what's going on. But we have an ultimate, sovereign

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God behind it all, which enabled the boldness of the early church, right?

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They were bold because of this great, sovereign truth of God. So I think this gives full meaning.

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If you go back to Psalm 2, what word did I not really highlight in verse 1?

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Why did the nations rage in Psalm 2, verse 1? Why did the nations rage and the people's plot in what?

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Vain. Vain. Vain. That third layer of God is sovereign over it all. They can do their barking.

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They can do their plotting. They can do their rage. They can do everything they can against the kingdom of Christ and his kingdom, right?

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But because God is sovereign, it is vain. Vain is useless. It's scary.

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It's scary to hear it. It's scary to see it. But it is vain because of that sovereign God. So we see here, the dogs bark.

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It's loud. It's scary. But from the point of view of God, it is vanity.

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Do we worship and serve God and his kingdom this way or do we let the noise of the enemy, the scariness, rattle us into submission?

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I've heard a couple of young married couples with dread saying, we don't know if we want to have kids to bring kids into this world because of the scariness of what's going on.

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It's amazing to see. It always just amazes me to see the way the culture is going, even from when

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I was around back in the 90s, which, yes, I'm a young man. I understand. But it has sped up tremendously.

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It's amazing, right? And we cannot live as Christians with this sort of fear, cowardice.

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We must be bold. We must see what God has done for his son and his anointed. Even in the Advent series as a baby, we see the enemy raging.

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We see God protecting for the sake of his kingdom to spread. So should we have kids in this day and age?

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Yes, have a whole lot of them. I always tell people who just had a baby, okay, have another one. Raise them up in the fear of the

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Lord and his kingdom and don't be afraid of the barking of the dogs. Rather, be solidified in the sovereign

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God who's raising up your child to take the darkness by force through Christ. This is the kind of tenacity or the boldness that we must have that we must be reminded of even in this

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Advent season. What does he say in verse 4 of chapter 2 of Psalm 2, verse 4 in Psalms?

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How does God react to the dogs barking? I say dogs barking because Martin Luther said it that way and I love it.

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Martin Luther had people hating on him. He heard it in the news and he says, oh, the dogs are barking again and I just think that's so Luther of him and I just want to steal that.

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How does God respond? He's not scared. Remember, God is using this. He, in verse 4, who sits in the heavens laughs.

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Isn't that amazing? You got this hatred of them. He sits in the heavens and he laughs. The Lord holds them in derision.

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It's saying the same thing twice. Derision, it's mocking. He's laughing in a way that's mocking.

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If I had time, I could say, he's not laughing at what they're doing as if it's cute. Oh, look at them rebelling against me.

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What did Herod go on to do? I don't have time to go to it but what did he go on to do in 16 through 18? Herod goes on to kill every two -year -old and under and to try to kill

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Christ that the serpent wants him to do. That's not cute. So he's not laughing and saying, oh, isn't that cute that he just killed?

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Imagine, having the kids that I do, I imagine all just someone coming in and just murdering my two -year -olds and under.

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I cannot even fathom that. There's nothing cute about that. It's not a laughter like, oh, look at them rebelling.

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It's cute. But it's a laughter like, how do you even think that you could stand up against me and my anointed one?

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Imagine, you're a little, speaking of two -year -olds and three -year -olds, four -year -olds, when they wrestle you as if you're a father or whatever and you kind of let them win a little bit and they think that they're going to win and then you just pummel them.

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There's no way you're going to beat me. I let my kid win sometimes. I do. But nevertheless, it's the same kind of thought.

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There's no way you're going to and you actually think that you can. God laughs. There's no way you're going to beat me and my anointed one.

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He laughs. He holds them in derision. His laughter and mocking over Satan and his dominion and thinking that they could stay his hand and all that they do not only does it not stop

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God but it actually furthers his plan. It's one thing for it to, okay, you didn't stop

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God this time, but God uses what they do and he actually furthers his plan. Only God can toy with his enemy like that, like a cat and a mouse.

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It's amazing the God we serve. And we're going to be fearful? No. And then, verses five through six, he will speak to them in his wrath and terrify them in his fury saying, ask for me?

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This is my plan. This is my goal. I have set my king on Zion, my holy hill.

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They're trying to stop the king being set on Zion, his holy hill. He says, no, this is my plan and not only are you not going to stop it but everything you're going to do is actually going to establish my goals.

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So he laughs at them trying to stop him. He holds them in derision.

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From the beginning the world has tried to stop King Jesus from being established. Whether they knew it or not, Satan has used them for this purpose.

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And time and time again, their rage and plots proved to be vain and laughable because of God's power to turn their actions into helping his plan for Jesus and his kingdom, the very opposite of harming it.

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This is what we see going on in Matthew 2. We see them raging but we see God interceding for the sake of the safety of his son so that one day he will reign

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Jesus Christ our Lord. And it's not like it was just that way.

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God's acting that way in the Old Testament and then in the birth of Jesus and the death of Jesus and the resurrection of Jesus and now it's not that way anymore.

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What does it say in Psalm 2 -8? We'll get there next week but just to help get us ready for it.

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Psalm 2 -8 Ask of me and I will make the nations your heritage and the ends of the earth your possession. Jesus isn't weak.

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His kingdom is not weak but the whole promise of the Father is I will give you the nations.

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Now I think he's going to do that either through grace or through wrath. The nations will be his.

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It's either going to be through grace or it's going to be through wrath but nevertheless we see that the whole point of history even to today is for Jesus to gain the nations the world everything as his inheritance as his heritage.

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This is what Jesus is doing. And anyone to try to stop such a thing even today when it seems like unbelief is so it's so high right?

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They seem to have so much power. You get these worldly systems and they cry out foul for things that aren't foul and everyone listens to them.

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It can be so frustrating and we can think that the kingdom is weak. We can think that truth is weak.

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Nevertheless, we know that all things are working together for the nations to be his heritage and God uses their barking for his glorious end always.

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So we must kiss the sun so that we can see that come intuition we can see that happen as those who have received his grace not his wrath.

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Alright. Let me finish here. The only thing more sure in life that the kingdom of light will bring the kingdom of dark to a drunken rage is that God will use their rage to further his own plans.

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Psalm 76 10 says Surely the wrath of man shall praise you. The remnant of wrath the remnant of wrath you will put on like a belt.

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God uses the wrath the rage of his enemies for his own purpose.

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It is the same thing now in our own day. If your life is in turmoil today if your life is in turmoil today may it be because you are serving

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Christ and the plans of the world are set against you. May that be the reason why. But I think a lot of Christians they're in turmoil because they're in some kind of sin that they need to get out of.

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But if you're in turmoil today and if it's because of your allegiance to Christ and his kingdom may you celebrate that because God is using that to further his glory for your good.

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If you are not in the kingdom of Christ you are not a willing obedient slave to the

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Lord Jesus' rule and reign made willing by his priestly work. If this is not you then know that that means there is only one other kingdom you are in.

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There is no middle kingdom. The kingdom that is trying to stop his work in vain. He's there losing.

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Every act of your disobedience is not acute sin but is rather a testimony to that even if you try to dress it up as harmless disobedience it is rather a sin against the king of the universe.

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It is disobedience to the reigning God on high and he will have his victory. So the only answer is for you to repent and believe upon the king of heaven and earth and kiss the sun.

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If you are in the kingdom of Christ take joy this Christmas season even amongst the turmoil in your life.

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All that the kingdom of Christ has ever known is turmoil. There's nothing new in that. And God uses it to further the kingdom.

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I promise you that this that your turmoil today is no different. Use it in obedience and he will turn it for his glory and your good.

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Be obedient to the Messiah as bad as disobedience and the unbeliever is it's worse than the believer.

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We want everything that happens to us the turmoil, the hardships we don't want to use that for disobedience.

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We want to use that in obedience to Christ so we can see him use that for the furtherance of his gospel for the furtherance of his kingdom.

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So let us not be weak let us not let us be bold like the early church.

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You've got to imagine they were facing sure turmoil right before them. And because they held to the sovereignty of God and how he uses that for his glory in the kingdom they were emboldened.

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And so that's the way we should look at our hardships this Advent season that Christ was always protected his kingdom was always protected and beloved and you and your service in the kingdom you will be protected in that even if it means losing your life but you furthered the kingdom.

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So who are we to fear? We are to serve our God. Let me pray. God in heaven

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I thank you for this again this Advent season I thank you Lord that we can remind ourselves of how

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Christ came surely as a baby and meek and how you protected him how you protected his parents during that time but we know

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Lord that this is all part of your plan to establish him on your holy hill to establish the kingdom of Christ.

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And we know Lord of course there's the the raging of the world system led by the serpent. We know

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Lord that these people are deceived into thinking that their raging and their disobedience to Christ is something else than it really is and that is disobedience to the sovereign

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Lord of all the universe. But I'm so thankful that Jesus Christ he offers his hand in grace that there are unbelievers who has that hope that they can instead of receiving his wrath they can instead kiss the sun and receive his mercy.

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And so I pray God that we would hold on to the workings of this kingdom of Christ that mercy is held out to the world and that we can be a part of that Lord and know that in the end those who do not repent they will lose.

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Although they speak loudly and it can be scary we know that God you're using all of this for the glory of the kingdom.

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This is what you're doing. Let us hold on to that so that when we face turmoil in our own world in our own lives in our own families we can see how can

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I use this to be obedient to Christ because we know that turmoil is used by Christ to further his work.

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Let that be our hearts desire today. Let it be our focus and I pray you aid us in this week so we can glorify you in all that we do in Jesus name, amen.