day. you. Oh Yeah, praise God. And it's a blessing to sing together, worship the Lord together in song. Thank you for your good singing tonight. Can we dismiss the kids? You go with, this is short, the crash, unless you're Zara, then you're gonna stay. But praise God, as we were just talking about, God is our comfort, God is our strength, God is our help. You know, what a privilege to be able to have that access directly to God, through the Lord Jesus Christ. Whatever trial we're facing, whatever hardship, no matter what it is, that we have a God that cares about us, and it's great to sing about that. All right, unless you never go out, and probably if you haven't tuned in to our services, you know, been there, whatever, you probably know about the U.S. elections that have been taking place. You may not have wanted to know too much about it, but you probably know something about it. It's been a very contentious battle between these two political parties, Democrat and Republican Party. media was giving, I saw this, 96% bad publicity to Donald Trump, not a surprise, and something like 75% good publicity to Biden, just to kind of put You know, Twitter and Facebook were censoring Republicans, even not having to do with the president. I mean, the guy that does the border wall, just talking about how great it is to see the border wall come together. Some women that were for Trump that had an organization of some 36,000. Things like that were getting censored. And the bad news about Hunter Biden and what took place with that, if you're familiar with the story, the vice president, who's president-elect now, is when he was in office, his son had a business that was with China, and it's questionable. And it looks like there's some bad things that took place, but that wasn't put into the mainstream media except for conservative news station Fox News that covered it. This election is weird because there was an unusually large number of mail-in ballots that due to the pandemic, you know. We are seeing this next year in Scotland when the election takes place how that'll play out if that's going to be the case here as well because that's coming I think in March. There were changes in laws in key battleground states that had to do with the election and the ballots that were coming and how late they could come and what not, and they took place just before the election and that might end up in the Supreme Court. Pollsters and pundits were shockingly off. I mean, they said in Wisconsin, my home state, that Biden was going to be ahead by some 17 percent. Well, again, if you follow the news at all, he actually won the state by about half a percent or less. Obviously, when you project that, those two ideas, you're going to impact the election. Some people aren't going to vote. They're going to go, what's the point? Biden's going to win by 17%. perhaps. There's anger with the Republican Party that they weren't allowed in to observe the vote. As it was being counted, they are by law allowed to observe it and some places they weren't allowed in. Other places they are so far away some were using binoculars and even then they can only see that which was taking place close to them. Trump's attorney Rudy Giuliani said this about that as they put the lawsuit in to effect. Observe means to be able to see. I thought that was a deep statement, you know? Observe means to be able to see, and they wanted to do that to make sure that the legally elected person becomes the President of the United States. Tonight, As we come to the Word of God, what we're looking at is really a political passage. Psalm 22, it's about future politics that will take place. It's a prophetic look at the coming messianic kingdom of the Lord. And I wanna challenge us tonight to come to the word of God, Psalm chapter two, and observe. And what we're gonna observe is God's vote. God is casting his vote, and we're gonna see that the legally elected person is gonna take that position of authority. And by the way, if you think the U.S. election is stressful and contentious, it's nothing compared to what will take place maybe in the very near future as the Lord Jesus Christ comes to take up his rightful Father, I thank you for the opportunity that we have to look to the Word of God. Father, with the election of the United States and this election that we see in the Word of God, we acknowledge that, God, you are in control. And no matter who's in a position of authority, the King's heart's in the hand of the Lord. He turns it withers, soever he will. We know one thing about the US election is that you weren't courted, your plans weren't changed, that you know the end from the beginning. And Father, certainly more dramatically, when it comes to the coming kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ, you are in control, and what will take place will take place. And Father, as we enter that vote cast by you tonight, may the Spirit of God speak to our hearts, encourage us who are as believers in an ungodly world that is set against God, that, Father, it's okay. The Father gave you a warning too, to any unbelievers that would listen to this message, that they would understand that this is gonna happen, that there's gonna be an account that they're gonna give to God, and that they can't dismiss it, that they will have to bow to me before the Lord Jesus Christ. And Father, I pray for their salvation. Father, tonight as I speak, I can't speak without your enablement. I pray that the Holy Spirit of God would give me liberty and wisdom. Tonight has been a blessed Sunday. We have enjoyed Sunday school and Sunday morning. That's been a blessing. Now as we come to the service this evening, may the Spirit of God continue to enable me as I speak, enable us as we listen. And Father, may you get the glory for this time. And so let's observe God's vote as we look at this passage tonight. And again, this is a very contentious battle. Satan is fraudulent, Satan's a deceiver. Satan's gonna try to push through his candidate, but it doesn't matter because Christ will prevail. And so as we observe God's vote this evening, the first thing that we see in the passage with observation is observing, first of all, man's rebellion. observing dance rebellion you know part of the chaos with the US elections was the rioting that that was going to take place and you know it wasn't a surprise Especially, and right now it looks like President Trump has not won that election, but especially if President Trump was re-elected. I mean, their plans were in. It was out on social media that there was going to be rioting that would take place. This is where we're going to meet. This is what's going to go down and happen. So much so that they actually boarded up buildings in the states. got ready in these downtown areas because they expected it. I saw that U.S. Airways took their flight attendants and moved them outside of the main city so that if they had to get to a flight, they wouldn't be hindered by what they assumed would be taking place. And so, it wasn't a surprise. As we look at it tonight, and we're gonna see that man is in rebellion against this coming kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ, it's not a surprise to us. It's been in the works for a very long time. Satan has always been against the Lord Jesus Christ coming. So what we find as we observe man's rebellion is that man is raging against God. It says, why do they then rage? Why do they rage? To rage is to be tumultuous. Okay? Sometimes parents might see that in a home. It happens sometimes, you know, a child is, maybe gets in a rage, they're tumultuous. You see it again in the U.S. elections and what took place. I've read that 11 people were killed in political demonstrations in this time period. I mean, that is a very sad thing. That is what rage has done. A 20-year-old girl I saw trying to light a pulling station on fire. I mean, she's got her lighter out, and she's trying to get it on fire. A middle-aged woman went on a rampage, destroying Trump signs. You know, I'm screaming, because she just couldn't handle it anymore. But you know, the silly thing about that is whoever wins the presidency, and again, it looks like Vice President Biden is the president-elect, but no matter who wins the presidency, a democracy says that the person that is voted in will be put into that office. It doesn't matter if somebody gets upset. It doesn't matter if somebody is going to rage. It's going to happen. Guess what? When it comes to the theocratic government of the Lord Jesus Christ, it doesn't matter that they rage. And they will. And they are raging against God. Man is raging against God. Man is imagining against God. It says, the people imagine a vain thing. It's like they're giving themselves to this idea, how can we overcome this? How can we get beyond this? But again, it's vain because there is no way they're going to stop it. It doesn't matter how hard they think about it, how much planning goes into it. It is going to happen. Again, as you look at the US elections, it wasn't just the president that was up for office. office. Senator Lindsey Graham, who was a key man that was used to help in the Senate Judiciary hearings, he oversaw the hearings, a very gracious man, he's a conservative Republican. He's in South Carolina. His race, the man that Senate, you know, candidate ever, some $57 million that came pumping into that state from outside that state because people wanted to take out Lindsey Graham. Can I say this? It was in vain. He got, you know, Lindsey Graham won. What a waste of $57 million because there was no purpose and it accomplished nothing. You know, our world is wasting much on their vain imaginations against God. You think about how much effort is going into this idea of overthrow God and getting rid of God. You think about evolution. And all the textbooks that are being written and rewritten and rewritten. And all the publishing that is taking place on this false theory. I mean, they've just given themselves to it, investing and investing and imagining a vain thing. We've got museums like the National Museum, which is incredible to walk through. But as you walk through it, if you read the signage, it's a monument to evolution. And again, what a waste. It's clutching, as we talked about at Strauss, taking bone fragments, little bits of this or that, and thinking and thinking and thinking, and building a man out of those bone fragments. But again, it is vain. And then you think about how much money has been put into false science. You got the Large Hadron Collider over in Europe, and smashing these particles together at these high speeds to try to find the God particle. And again, what a waste of money You've got all these scientific places pouring in, pumping money into this theory. That's a false theory. You got people trying to save the polar ice. We just commissioned a new icebreaker ship in Britain to go up. Part of that is the concern that Antarctic ice is leaving, and we've got to somehow save the planet. We're going to have global warming. We're going to have flooding. But as believers, we understand that this world is temporary. And so again, they're just pumping that in, trying, because of their imaginations against God, thinking that they can somehow overthrow this idea of God. And so man is raging against God, man is imagining against God, and man is setting themselves against God. It says in verse two, the kings of the earth set themselves against the Lord and against his anointed. Have you ever been in a car and had somebody that's having road rage? You know, and they're blocking people. And they get up there and what do they do? They get in that position where nobody can pass and they set themselves, right? I mean, they're just gonna dig in there and they're not gonna give way one little bit. You know, the Bible says about this world is that they are set against God. They are entrenched, they are dug in. You think about governments agreeing to kill babies in the womb. It's amazing, isn't it? I mean, they're a dead set. They're entrenched with this doctrine of murdering a baby in a mother's belly. Entrenched against God. Schools teaching that perverse sexual sin is not just okay, but that it's admirable. Lifting it up as something worthy of applause if somebody comes out and says that they are in sexual sin. Schools teaching evolution as fact, and creation as fable. Again, entrenched against God, saying there is no God, and pushing that doctrine of atheism. Yet legislators there are legislating against hate speech. But much of that hate speech, again, is an attack on freedom of religion and freedom of expressing the truth of the Word of God. In Scotland, legislating against biblical parenting just went into effect yesterday, this anti-snacking legislation. The Bible says that biblical discipline is good. It's going to criminalize good parents disciplining their children in love. And so you look at it, and you see a society that is set against God. You know, the neat thing about that for us as believers, is we look in the word of God, we look at Psalm 2, 3,000 years ago, and we go, you know what? It's just like God says, because it's happening just as God says. Proverbs 16, verse five says, everyone that is proud in heart is an abomination to the No matter how much this world says, hey, we're going to grab hands and we're going to say, we are going to stand together against God. Guess what? It doesn't matter, does it? Because they will be punished. And so we see that as well in the rebellion. that man is confederate, joined together against God. Notice what it says in verse two, it says, and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against his anointed saints. Now, point being, it's not an accident that this legislation is against God. It's not an accident that this position is so anti-Christ. It is purposeful. It is the target of the things that they do. They take this position against God. And they do that by claiming that the law does not apply to them. It says in verse three, Let us break their bans asunder and cast away their courts from us." They have a disdain for God so long. It's like a child that is rebelling in the home and hates mom and dad's rules and can't wait to get out from what they perceive as mom and dad's rules, right? Their courts, their, it says, bans. You know, again, we rejoice as we look at the word of God. We look at Israel being where God said Israel's gonna be, and then we look at what is taking place and we say, you know what? This is just like the word of God says. Men are dead set against God. Let's again think about it. Men are joining together to say God's law about murder does not apply to them, right? Thou shalt not kill. Abortion, euthanasia, there's places in Europe where a child can take their life. Legalized suicide. Again, taking a position against God. Men are joining together to say God's law about marriage doesn't apply to them, whether that's by this terminology of partner and living together or homosexual marriage that has been put through, they are joining themselves again against God. Men are joining together to say God's law is irrelevant. kind of in our Sunday school lesson as well, this casting off, saying God's law doesn't apply to them. And it's very sad for us to have to stop and think about tonight, but we do need to look at the word of God, we do need to look at what God says, and then consider what's taking place. Our first minister, Nicholas Spurgeon, this past year, Okay, that is exactly, again, what the word of God says. Genesis 127 says, so God created man in his own image, and the image of God created in him, male and female created he them. God's word has gender distinction. God's word says a man's a man, a woman's a woman, and it's men and women who marry and then have intimacy within marriage. That's what God says about it. Romans 1.25 says, who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshiped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Now, Romans chapter one, 2,000 years ago, Paul said, a society that is given over to humanism. They worship and serve the creature. more than the creator, right? That's humanism. That's saying, kind of, it's like saying, I am God, right? I'm the one that makes the rules. I'm the one that decides. God says this, for this cause, God gave them up to vile affections, for even their women to change their natural views into that which is against nature. And likewise, also the men, leaving the natural use of a woman, burned in their lust one toward another, men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error which is mean." It's very sad tonight that we have to spend time in our day preaching from the Word of God about what should be obvious. They change the natural use. because God gave them over to a reprobate line. Verse 28, even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate line to do those things which are not convenient. Okay, 2,000 years ago, Paul said a society that rejects God and lives for themselves is a society that's gonna be characterized by homosexuality. And that's exactly what we see in our day. And so that ought to, in a sad way, encourage us, because we look at the Bible and say, it's just like God said 2,000 years ago. It's just like God said 3,000 years ago when we come to this psalm, Psalm chapter two, that they have said, let's break their bands asunder and cast away their cords from us. Why do they do that? They look at God's law as restrictive. It says, let us break their bands asunder and cast away their cords from us. Let me ask you tonight, was the law given to limit the fun of mankind? No. God's law is protective, not restrictive. What is God's law protecting mankind from? Well, it's protecting, first of all, from the natural result of sin. Do you know if sexual sin causes sexual disease? Smoking causes cancer. Broken relationships are a result of sin, break of trust, divorce, and all these things that sin is It's pain. There's emptiness in it, in sin as well. They seek satisfaction in that which does not satisfy. I spoke to a man today, and I said to him, you know, I'm glad you find joy in your work. There's a lot of people seeking satisfaction in alcohol, seeking satisfaction in drugs. Those things do not satisfy. He's not a believer. You know what he said? He said, I agree. It's empty. But sadly, people get addicted to it. They get addicted to something that can't bring happiness. It's empty. It's addictive. They've got to have it. They feel like they have to keep doing it, but it's empty. God's law is to protect them from going down that path of suffering and dissatisfaction and addiction, and above that, a waste. God's law protects from condemnation. Why? Because the soul that sinned, it shall die. The wages of sin is dead. The punishment for sin is dead. The consequence of sin is dead. So God says, hey, don't eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, man, because the day thou eatest thereof, thou shall surely die. God's law protects from that. It protects from hell, the eternal result of sin. That condemnation, as it's enforced, casts somebody into a lake of fire for all eternity. Now, my family lives right here, we're close to Debray. It's a major road that goes out to Peebles and to other areas out the border. It's a very busy road. You wouldn't be surprised tonight to know that in my family, I've got a rule, and it doesn't even need to be said, and that is you don't play in the road because the road is dangerous. As dad, I'm not trying to make it so my kids don't have fun. I'm seeking to protect them because I love them and I care about them. Now, driving through Connecticut this past week with Benson, three kids, little kids, running across the main intersection by Tesco, no parents anywhere to be seen. And I mean, they're running across where the lights did not turn for them, and there's cars that are having to wait on them, these three little kids that could have been hit and killed by a car. Now, when I say this is first, that parent is either, oops, the door was unlocked, the kids escaped, but that parent does not love their kids as much as I love my kids. And I'm not trying to, that may have been a one-off, but if they're just letting these little guys run around playing the road, that's not protective. That is taking away restrictions and that is not love, because it doesn't defend those that shouldn't be protected. And so God's law, is not restricted. God's law is protected. Let me ask you tonight, just with regard to your heart, how do you view God's law? Do you view God's law as, oh, I can't do that, I can't go there, I can't do that? Or do you see it as God's love for you? Listen, by the way, kids, if you got parents that have rules, praise God. That's a parent that can't go there can't do that because I want to protect you. God loves us and so he gave us his law. So as we look at it tonight we observe first of all as we look at God's vote being cast we observe man's rebellion. I mean they are no way you are not going to reign over us. But the second thing that we see is God's authority. God's authority. And again rebellion is He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh. Probably shaking his head, looking at man's folly and laughing at them. Back when I was a kid, I was a camper. You guys like to go to camp? You know, you ever been to camp with counselors and stuff? I was in a cabin with my brother, and we, I think, generally get along, but somehow we got in a fight. And my counselor, it wasn't my fault, it was more my brother's fault than my fault, but my counselor took me, he put me out in the back step, and he made me sit there, and he closed the door. And I thought, well, I'm gonna teach you. And I took off running into the woods. I ran away a couple times when I was a kid. Not a good thing to do, kids, all right? Bad, bad idea. But I wasn't very good at running away. I didn't run far. So I run up over a hill through the woods, and I get down by the dining area of the camp, because tea time's coming. And I see my cabin walk past, and I realized, I should have realized, you don't realize a lot when you're a kid, but they all looked at me, waved at me, smiled at me, and went in to eat, and probably laughed at my stupidity. Because they knew, at some point, oh my God, I'm hungry, at some point I'm gonna give in, at some point I did, I went into the kitchen, and Charlie Hatchett, the director of the camp, got me eating in the kitchen at a camp, but they knew I'd give in, Because my rebellion was vain. He has the Lord, he looks at it, he just laughs, why? Because everything's gonna doubt. Every time he's gonna confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. Jesus laughs at man's stupidity. Jesus will expose their folly. It says in verse four, the Lord shall have them in derision. He's going to have them in derision. I wrote this message before I knew the outcome of the election, and we still kind of don't know. There's still kind of this hope that maybe something's wrong. And by the way, if you don't understand how we can appreciate, as a Christian, Trump, he has taken a stand against abortion like no other president pro-life. He has stood up for religious liberty. He's stood up for freedom of speech. Now there's things that he says, I may say it here at some point, there's things that he says I don't approve of. But it is a great disappointment if he doesn't get in. But imagine this, and this is kind of my, like if I could write a dream ending to this election process, it would be something like this. They think Biden's gonna be president. But when the votes are counted and the judicial rulings come in, it is found that, in fact, it's gonna be President Trump. Do you know what that would be? That would be having them in derision. I mean, there are gonna be, and I don't know that's, it's not gonna work out that way, and I understand politics and politics. I'm gonna pray for President Biden if that's the case, okay? But the thing is, that's derision. God's gonna have them in derision. They're all excited. Why? Because they think they won. They're all excited. There is no God. Evolution, homosexual marriage, abortion, all these things. There is no God. We're winning. No. The Lord shall have them in derision. He's gonna expose their folly. Jesus will not just laugh. He will reprimand them. It says in verse five, then shall he speak unto them. It's gonna be powerful, isn't it? Then shall he speak unto them in his rapture. There's gonna come a point where God says, enough, that's it. Listen, COVID-19 is just a shot fired over the bow to let us know, hey, wake up, world, there is a God, right? I wonder how many unbelievers have taken the Bible and read the book of Revelation, because the Lord is going to reprimand them, but secondly, he's going to alarm them. It says it infects them in a sort of displeasure. God is gonna say, enough, I am done with your rebellion. And listen, tribulation is coming, and at one time, one third of the population of the world is gonna be destroyed, and all these things are gonna come to pass. And the Bible says this, it's gonna be so bad in the great tribulation that in those days shall men seek death and shall not find it, and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them. and won't be able to commit suicide. And so again, it's gonna be a sad day when that takes place. But you know, it's a glad day as well. Jesus is gonna take his rightful place on the throne. It says in verse six, yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion. Does anybody know what Zion is? My holy hill of Zion. Zion is Jerusalem. All right, that is very geographically specific, is it not? This was said 3,000 years ago. I mean, this is going way back. God said, my king, King Jesus. is gonna sit on that throne in Jerusalem. You know, for an unbeliever that looks at that in this passage, you know what they need to stop and think about? They need to think about this. Has any other people group been dispersed from their homeland, been persecuted and killed, and attempted to be annihilated, kept their national identity, and returned to the land that they once possessed. What other nation has that happened to? Why is everybody so interested in peace in the Middle East and Israel, this one nation in the midst of all these Muslim nations that hate Israel? Why is that there? You know, I don't believe we ought to stop and look at that and say, you know what? The Bible said that 3,000 years ago. And it's happening, just like God said. Do you know why it's happening? Because Jesus Christ, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, is gonna come in through that eastern gate to the Temple Mount, and he's gonna reign for a thousand years in Jerusalem. Romans 14, 11, as it is written, as I live, said the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God. And so the first part, we're looking at man's rebellion. Thirdly, we observe God's authority. Thirdly, we observe God's power. God's power, as this takes place, Jesus has the power of God behind him. First of all, God appointed the Son. This ties into our Thursday night. If you're at our Thursday night, God appointed the Son as the Messiah, as the King of Kings that will reign in Jerusalem. It says in verse seven, I will declare the decree the Lord hath set up to me. Thou art my son, this day have I begun. God says, this is the one. Listen, we looked at it again on Thursday night. Three times God spoke audibly in the New Testament from heaven and he said things relating to the sonship of his son or responding to his son. He said, this is my beloved son. Why? Because there's gonna be an Antichrist that's gonna rise up someday and say, I am the Messiah. I am the one that is gonna reign. The beast and the false prophet that you read about in Revelation, they're gonna set themselves up as God, and yet they are not God, and Jesus Christ is coming, and that son is gonna reign in Jerusalem. So God appointed this son. And then God hears this son. It says in verse eight, Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. Okay, ask of me. And what'll he do? He'll give him the heathen. He'll give him the uttermost parts of the earth. Those people that are rebellious saying, I'm not gonna bow to the knee to God. God just says, ask. You know, the Son of God has incredible intercessory privilege. He said, at the betrayal, he said, do you not know that right now I can call 12 regions of angels? All I gotta do is do this. And so you may be thinking tonight, why isn't he asked? Why isn't the Lord Jesus said, Father, could I have that now? You know the reason? We understand this tonight. He's waiting because he loves those for whom he died. The sad thing is, and we're not looking tonight at the rebellion of man and saying, oh, that's great that God's gonna come and destroy them. Look, we are saying with the Lord, it would be far better if they get saved, right? But Jesus Christ is postponing His return, and the Father's postponing the return of Christ because of His love for them and desire to see them saved. 2 Peter 3, 9, it says, the Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness, but as longsuffering to us were, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. And it's this tonight, Jesus Christ is waiting, God the Father is waiting, because he cares about those that would perish if he came now. But see, the authority that Jesus has and then God empowers his son. It says in verse nine, thou shalt break them with a rod of iron. Thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel. You know, if I was in that position of rebelling against God, I'd wanna stop and think, you know what? Let's not go down this path any further because just like a vessel, kids, have you ever broken something? Something glass? If you hit that with a rod of iron, what does that glass do? It shatters. And Jesus Christ has the authority to come back like that. Again, I say to us that it's not the desire of the Lord to take that vessel in to destroy it. He would rather repair it. Here's some scripture. It says in Jeremiah 18, verse one, the word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord saying, arise and go down to the potter's house and there I will work on the wheels and the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter. It rebelled against the potter's hand. He tried to fashion it and kids have you ever seen somebody making a clay vessel and working at it? and it's marred, so he's gotta rework it. So he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it. Then the word of the Lord came to me saying, O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter said, Lord? Behold, as the clay is in the potter's hand, so are he and my hand of house of Israel. And it could be tonight that somebody looks at their life and say, my life is messed up with sin. My life is troubled by sin. It is difficult. It's not going well because I'm rebelling against God and my life is messed up. Praise God tonight, we can save it now. Listen, Jesus is the master potter. He can put that life back into a place where it is powerful and useful and good. He's willing to do that. And that's what he'd like to do. But the thing is, if man won't yield, then what? He's got the power to take that vessel and sink into it. He's got the rod of iron in his hand. So again, we're looking at God casting his vote, as it were, for the Lord Jesus Christ, the coming of the millennial kingdom. And so we observe, first of all, man's rebellion. Secondly, we saw God's authority. He laughs at man, he's gonna take his place. We see God's power, all power is given to Jesus to go into that position. He's gonna take it. And so that leads us to the last point tonight. And that is this, if we observe man's dilemma, man's dilemma, what are they gonna do? You know, based on this, I mean, every unbeliever oughta come to Psalm 2, look at it and say, look, stop, look, and listen. And so what are they gonna do? And man can be wise. It says in verse 10, Be wise, now, therefore, O ye kings. Kids, who's a king? We've got a queen, don't we, Queen Elizabeth? But we have elected leaders, Prime Minister Boris Johnson, we've got Nicholas Sturgeon as the first minister in Scotland. We ought to pray, God, help them to be wise, to stop, look, and listen, and say, you know what? This is gonna get nowhere, it's vain, it's empty. Be wise about it. There is, in the states, in this election, the youngest congressman is a man that was in a car accident. And he was apparently paralyzed from the waist down. And at the Republican National Convention, he actually stood up in his speech that he made. It's pretty moving, as he is trying to demonstrate something, but it's very difficult for him to stand. But he's 24 years old. He got this news of his election. On the night of the election, it was very quick, they realized that he was the winner. He was declared the winner. And they said to him, what was it like? What did he do? You know what he said? He said, we all bowed our heads and prayed and thanked God for his grace. There's another man running for office in Michigan. It looks like he's lost. It's the Senate position. He was trying to take out an incumbent, a man that had been there 35 years, and it was very close. But you know, they asked him, who's your role model? He said, my role model is Jesus Christ. I want to do everything I can to follow him and help others. Wow, that's wisdom. Man can be wise. Man can learn. It says, be instructed, ye judges of the earth. Again, I spoke with man about God today. He's not a believer, but he said this. He said, I like listening to you. I will listen. I do not, he said, I do not like people that do this. Because if you do that, you can't learn. And again, our world could stop, look and listen, could look at the word of God in this text and say, that is what's gonna happen. So I'm gonna give myself to listening to what God says. Man can learn, and man can fear God. Verse 11, it says, serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling. If I were to ask you tonight, what's the main reason why our world is in such rebellion against God? You know, it's a very simple answer from the Bible. The Bible says there is no fear of God before their eyes. They don't fear God. I mean, ask these political leaders, do you fear God? I mean, you're legislating sin, You're legislating murder, you're legislating sexual sin, you've legislated against God in atheistic textbooks. Do you fear God? Are you concerned that you have taken a position against the creator, the judge, the one that's gonna cast into hell? They can fear God, they can wake up and fear God. Man can't believe and be saved. It says in verse 12 at the end, Blessed are all they that trust in Him. Happy are all they that trust in Him. Happy is a person that would bow the knee and understand that on Calvary, Jesus Christ died for their sin, that He didn't stay in the grave, but He rose from the dead, and that by faith in Him, they can be forgiven of their sin and given God's everlasting life. Listen, it could happen. It could happen to a king. It could happen to somebody in high authority. They can be wise and learn and fear God. and believe in Jesus Christ. Or, as it says in our text, man can perish before he knows it. Man can perish before he realizes it. Verse 12 says, kiss the son, that means yield to him, lest he be angry and ye perish from the way when his wrath is kindled by the Lord. Do unbelievers understand where they're standing? There was a man in Durango, Colorado, that was pictured standing on a cliff face. I mean, it's a beautiful place to stand. You can see way down into the valley. And so, he was standing there and somebody in his family, I guess, snapped a picture of him standing on that point. The next week, they put in the paper. Because the cliff he stood on collapsed. And where he was standing was no longer there. I mean, do you think he'd be a little bit scared? Would the hair on the back of his neck go up a little bit to understand? I was on the precipice of death and I didn't even know it. You know, tonight, unbelievers ought to have the hair on the back of their neck stand up because they're standing on the precipice of eternity in the lake of fire for their rebellion against Christ. but it doesn't matter. And it's so quickly, Jesus Christ could take away their breath, he could take away their life, if his wrath is kindled just a little. Listen, God has been extremely merciful as of now. And so tonight, we look at, prophetically, at a future politics. And we can observe it, we're allowed to, God said, And as we look at it, we see Nan's rebellion. It is happening. Listen, those illustrations I've used tonight, there are so many, but I mean, it's all around us, just like God said. And so we observe that. And we observe God's authority. Jesus is laughing. Why? Because he's going to take his position as king. He has the power. He's the anointed son. He is going to take that position as soon as he says to the Father, Father, give me the human for my inheritance. And so man has a choice. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ or reject him. You know, we pray tonight, and this ought to concern us greatly. We've got to pray, dear God in your mercy, wake our society up. Help them understand that they are standing in opposition to God. They're not going to succeed. But as believers, as we come to something like this tonight, we ought to be encouraged because it's just like God said. 3,000 years ago, and it's gonna happen very soon. His kingdom's coming. Let's stand with him. Let's not bow to me and join the rebellion of those that say these things are okay or get silenced and think, well, I can't speak anymore and say what the Bible says. Let's be wise about it, but let's stand with God, because God has not changed. He will not change, and this is gonna happen. The king is coming. Let's please him when he comes. Let's pray. Father, I pray that the Holy Spirit We'll take the word of God and put it deep into the hearts of men. Savior, I thank you, and I pray tonight your kingdom come, your will be done. It's obvious tonight that man is deeply entrenched against God. Oh, Father, for your mercy, we pray with Jesus. Father, forgive them for they know not what they do, they don't realize, and we pray that you waken them up, that they be wise, that they learn, that they fear God, Father, they get saved. That they get set free from the bondage of their sin, and the emptiness of sin, and dissatisfaction of life without God, and the punishment of their sin. Father, if there's anyone like that, tonight, even in this congregation, I pray the Spirit of God to give them grace to humbly pray, and ask Jesus Christ to come into their heart and save them. Father, as believers, may we be encouraged the Word of God. Thank you for being able to observe right now. It's in Christ that