Well, good morning. December 7th, Alex brought it to my attention this morning about the date, December 7th, 1941. A day, as you know, was said would live in infamy. It's actually an odd thing to think about. Growing up my whole life, I pretty much interacted with people who could remember that day. But there's no one in this room who can. And that generation is passing on. And I mean, you'd pretty much have to be 84 to have existed, to remember it, probably close to 90. It's kind of strange, isn't it, how these things happen and change and how time goes on. And it's not so much that that has to fit in with the sermon other than to say this. It is an example, December 7th, 1941. It is an example of the fallenness of this world. Why do nations rise up against nations? Why do the peoples rage against one another and against their God? Why is there so much darkness and violence and obscenity and absurdity in the world today? Well, the answer is sin. Now, we'll continue our exposition in Acts, and we'll get to chapter five next week, but I just wanted to go back and take a few verses from chapter four to teach a very important doctrine. But I thought that I would frame the sermon today simply with the title, The Plight before Christmas. I'm not a poet, nor the son of a poet. I've written a little poem. I hope that captures what I hope to communicate today. And while you listen to it, and then we'll read Acts 4, 24 through 28. Twas the plight before Christmas. The nations did rage. Every soul-loving self and earning sins wage. While hating God's rule, men strayed from the path. The just thing for all would be facing God's wrath. Yet echoes of mercy rang in darkness so deep, the triune God of love had purpose to keep. Before time began, predestined by grace, God would rescue His people by taking their place. Jesus, born of Mary, the law to fulfill, the Christ of the Scriptures, obeying God's will, and there on the cross, behold, darkened Son, and the stead of His bride, propitiation. Laid in a tomb, but on third day arose to justify those who were once counted foes. Lots more could be said, much glory unsung. Will you repent of your sin, put your faith in the Son? You see, this is Christmas, its meaning so plain. God redeeming His church by Christ's work and His reign. So this season so merry to enjoy, it is right. Happy Christmas to all. Oh, be free from your plight. Acts chapter 4, we'll read verse 24 through 28. Would you stand with me as we honor the reading of God's Word? And 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, who through the mouth of our father David, your servant, said by the Holy Spirit, why did the Gentiles rage and the people's plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves together and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord. and against his anointed? For truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place. Father, would you help us to understand not only the plight before Christmas, but the plan that you had to rescue us from eternity? We pray, oh God, that you would show us your grace today. Lord, I know there are several that are out today because of various reasons. Would you be with them? Restore them back to us soon. Especially think of Gunnar, Lord. I hope he's even able to listen, that you'd be with him. Lord, I think about the McChesney's and the birth of their beautiful baby boy. Oh God, I pray for them and they're able to rejoin us soon. Lord, we pray for others unable to be here this morning. We pray, oh God, that you would open up our ears to hear today, our eyes to see. Oh, let us adore the majesty and beauty of Christ. Prepare our hearts to observe the Lord's supper. We pray it all in Jesus' name. Amen. You may be seated. So, I told you last week, I gave you a heads up, that we had to go back and just kind of assess some things from this prayer. So, you can learn a lot about a way a church prays. You can learn quite a bit from a church that doesn't pray. But this church prays from Psalm chapter 2. I told you that last week. And it sees itself, I might add here from Psalm 2, the inheritors of these promises. Of the promises of God to Israel, the church here in Acts sees itself as the fulfillment, the inheritors. The inheritors of the Old Testament promises to Israel, the church sees itself as standing in that line, receiving those through Christ. And what we're seeing unfolding right now in Acts is the Kingdom. Jesus Christ. Who is the King that Psalm 2 speaks of? It's Jesus Christ. He's the resurrected and ascended King. He is the Son of David. He is upon the throne of David. He is reigning now because of His work in glorious triumph. He is building His church. We're not going back to the Old Testament. Ceremonies, right? Like, imagine if I told Steph, I said, hey, I got a great idea, Stephanie. Next year, we celebrate 20 years of marriage. And so next year, to celebrate 20 years of marriage, let's go back to being engaged. What? You don't go backward. The engagement points forward to the marriage. We're not going to go back to the Old Testament ceremonies or the feasts. Those were types and shadows. We have the substance. It's Christ. His church is the kingdom that He is building, showing itself rightly gathering in rightly ordered visible local congregations. This kind of accelerates to the end of the story, but I like to tell the good news too. But we're considering this morning the plight before Christmas. So number one, we need to begin with some terrible news. Number one, the plot. Look at verse 24. So they hear it. They lift their voices. They hear of the accusations. They hear of the threats. They hear of the declarations from the authorities. Don't preach in the name of Christ. Now they take it to the Lord. And they say, Sovereign Lord, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them, who through the mouth of our father David, your servant, said by the Holy Spirit, why do the Gentiles rage? And the peoples plot in vain. The early church recognized, I might say, the sovereignty of God in a way that many professing Christians today do not. Now, in the text, in verse 24, two words, I would doubt that you probably don't have one word translated here probably every translation you have two words sovereign lord or something like that but those two words sovereign lord actually only translate one greek word and the greek word is despota now we get the english word from that for despot but You can't read that back in, that's just not how language works, you understand. But I'll give you one definition. It's defined as one who holds complete power or authority. The early church understood God as sovereign Lord, the one who holds complete power or authority. Church, do you believe this this morning about God? Well, we'll see if you do a little later in the sermon. For now, I want you to see three things about this plot against the one who holds complete power and authority. First, there is, number one, rage. Number one, there is rage. Verse 25, why did the Gentiles Rage. This word bears the connotation, it actually comes from, it has the root from the idea of a horse, like a snorting, you know, and so it has the idea of not just this internal rage, but this external expression of it, this open fury against God. And it is against, the text says, the kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers, verse 26, were gathered together against the Lord and His anointed. That is, the Lord and God and His King. David wrote this, but the anointed is Jesus, right? Verse 27 says that clearly. For truly in this city they were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus." This is talking about Jesus. The word for anointed, by the way, in verse 26, is the word for Christ. So they are raging against God and his Christ. God and the Messiah. And by the way, this is happening all over the world still today, and particularly this time of year it comes out, right? People don't want to say, Merry Christmas, and I don't want to get in those wars or whatever, those little holiday wars or whatever, but just understand there is a root there. They don't want Christ to be in Christmas. They don't want Christ to be there. There's a rage against Jesus of Nazareth. The world, and they may say that they're okay. The world's not okay with Jesus. In fact, Jesus, they'll make fun of. By the way, how many cartoons and comedic jokes do you see making fun of, say, Muhammad, or making fun of Joseph Smith? You don't see a lot of those. But you do see a lot of blasphemous attacks upon the Lord Jesus. Why? They hate Him. This rage stems from mankind being infuriated that we don't get to be God, that we don't get to be little sovereigns, that we don't get to be autonomous little beings, that there is one who stands above us who demands our worship, who says, it's not your body, your choice. Your body is my body, the Lord says. I made it, right? Our obedience, He demands, our all. And the point I'm making here is that this is the sin of the nations. Why did the Gentiles rage? It's translated in Psalm 2 in the Hebrew as nations. So why did the nations rage? Why did the Gentiles rage in the people's plot in vain? This is the sin of the nations. I'm saying this is across the board. From the lowest of lows to the highest of highs. From the popes to the Peloses. From paupers to princes, to the poverty stricken, to the powerball successes, all mankind outside of Christ rages against God and His rule. Now, some of them, they may be like Cain. You remember Cain, right? They offer lip service to God. They say the right things. They go through the motions of worship, right? Religious motions, but they refuse subservience to His rule. They don't bow the knee. This is all over society today. You see an open defiance of God, as well as what we might call Bible Belt carnal Christianity, which is also damning. Rage. This leads to my second point here, the recourse. So because they rage against God, what is their recourse? Verse 26 says, So because of this hatred of God, by humanity, alliances are formed. By the way, unity in and of itself is not necessarily godly. Right? So some people say sometimes, well, our church is unified. Well, a unified church is a good thing insofar that it is unified around Christ. and the gospel. There's lots of people, I use this all the time, and Gunner's not here to hear it, I know he loves this illustration, but I've been to Razorback football games, and I'm just telling you, when the Razorbacks score a touchdown, I'm not asking someone who they voted for, I'm not asking someone, you know, what kind of car they drive, how much money they make, I'm turning, I'm giving fist bumps, right? Because I'm like, woo, pig suey, the Razorbacks scored, and that don't happen very often if you watch them, right? So it's like, what's going on, right? There's unity there. That's not gospel unity. Listen, this is even worse than that. This is unity around hatred of God. And this is in our society today. I'll just give you some examples. All sorts of... Like, you're going to think I'm trying to make you laugh. I'm not trying to make you laugh. I want you to think of the absurdity of this. Gays for Palestine? You understand the absurdity of this? These two things cannot go together, and yet they do. Why? They're bonded in their common hatred of God. Black Lives Matter? Yet they're pro-abortion? You know, the number one killer of black Americans in the United States? Not even close. Abortion. Well, how could Black Lives Matter be pro-abortion if they really consider the fact that black lives matter? How could this happen? It's a union of their hatred against God. How could a feminist organization, who is supposedly pro-women, be supportive of men pretending to be women, competing in college sports, and erasing all of the world records that women, actual women, have done, and now these men, who are pretending to be women, are now getting the trophies. How could you be supportive of that? There's a common bond. a hatred of God. Or there's so many more things we could do. We could talk about Marxism and the continual push of it, even though it's only proved devastating to people and nations. We could talk about the continual injection of drugs into the body. Just the absurdity of all of these things that are ultimately self-destructive and destructive to humanity. Why do these things exist? I'm saying it's no accident. The kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and his anointed. It's an ultimately, it's an attempt to overthrow the rule of God. W.S. Plummer notes, if sin had its way, it would annihilate God's government. And this is the way you need to see the world. You need to understand it this way. In fact, it brings me to another just note to mention here. If you understand the world this way, then you will understand this truth. There is no neutrality. Okay, so like in the last 50 years or so, we've believed as Americans the myth of neutrality. Neutrality. That in the doctor's office, there can be neutrality. In the public school classroom, there can be neutrality. In science, there can be neutrality. In politics, there can be neutrality. In your workplace, there can be neutrality. We have believed that if you just take God out of all of these things, and then you just set them on neutral ground. But understand the subtle trick of the evil one here, and sometimes not so subtle by the way, to take God out of something is to seek to overthrow his rightful rule. I'll just give you a quick example. We can talk about the public schools, and we can talk about in the last however many years, you know, slowly just chipping away, taking God out of public schools as it were, not that you can erase His omnipresence, but to stand up and shake your fist and say, we're not going to talk about, we're not going to have the Bible here, we're not going to have God here, we're not going to pray, etc., etc., etc. You've taken all that out. Why? We're going to take God out of this so that we can be neutral. You can't do that. You take God out of an institution, you're not neutral, you're raging against God. Do you understand? Look at the public school system, for example, and you just tell me if in the last 50, 70, 100 years, morality has been better, education's been better. Friends, that's just one example, just one example. Consider political strategy. You try to do political strategy. You're like, well, I don't want to think about God in this. This is politics. Don't bring God into it. Let's just think about political strategy apart from God, apart from his rule, apart from his law. Okay, well, that's not neutral anymore, right? You take science, for example. Stop having God. We need to have a hypothesis here, and we don't need to consider God right now. No, no. When you do that, you're saying that God doesn't exist, that this universe and all its order and all these things can happen and go together without God. That's not neutral. I've spent too much time on that. There's no neutrality. I guess the application would be, don't do that. Don't play into that foolishness. God's rule comes to bear on all things. Your education, your home, your work, your hunting, your politics, all of it. If you've been guilty of trying to create neutral ground, then you ought to repent. And even in our apologetics, if you will, someone say like, will prove to me that God exists. Well, first of all, I'm not going to grant a single iota or inch to you and say, well, let's just suppose that God may not exist. I'm not doing that. Because there's no neutrality. No, God does exist, and in fact, He's not on trial. You are. So this is the rage. This is the recourse. And then thirdly, under this first point, the recompense. Now, I'm going into Psalm 2, this is not going to be directly from Acts 4, it's going to be in Psalm 2, because this is what they're praying, Psalm 2. So in Psalm 2 verse 9, God says of His anointed, that is King Jesus, the Son of God, the second person of the Trinity, this is what He says to him, You shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel. What is the recompense for the rage that the nations and peoples have against God? You shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them to pieces like a potter's vessel. Now you want to know one of the benefits of having lots of children is that I have experienced lots of coffee mugs being broken. I know that sound. I know the shatter. In fact, it gives me chills right now as I can hear it. I don't even have to ask when I hear the sound. I know what happened. I don't know how it happened, but I know what happened, and I've seen it. I've seen it with my own eyes. You watch the mug fall, and it's one of your favorite mugs, and it's just in slow motion, and there it is, and there's just nothing you can do about it, and it falls, and it hits the ground, and boom! Pieces go everywhere. That thing's shattered. Not into maybe a literal million pieces, but it's shattered into a lot of pieces. Now think about that analogy and think about what the Bible is saying that the Lord Jesus Christ is going to do to His enemies. He's going to shatter them like that. You can't put Humpty Dumpty back together. He's in too many pieces because the Lord Jesus Christ has judged Him. They'll be broken. destroyed, cast off forever in the lake of fire where they will be tormented day and night under the white hot wrath of Lamb for eternity, eternal conscious torment. Every person who joined in this worldly rebellious affront, whether overtly, like the proud outspoken atheist, or covertly, like the pastor who stands in the pulpit on Sunday, but during the week he's beholden to pornography. All who have participated in this rebellion will meet God in his holy fury. Now the most sobering thing about all that I'm about to say is this, this includes perhaps even some in this room. Maybe there are some that in your heart you don't want to deny God. You know, you've grown up in the Bible, but you're smarter than that. You understand? You don't want to deny God in your heart. You just don't want to give Him your whole heart. You don't want to surrender to Him. You don't want to bow to Him. You want to keep Him, as it were, at arm's length, if you can think of that that way. You want Him there for you. Excuse me. Sorry. You want Him there for you if you need Him. But until then, you're just gonna live life however you really want to live. Well, I just need to tell you as clearly and as pastorally and lovingly as possible, you're not part of the solution, you are part of the problem. You are part of the rebellion. You're not neutral, right? You're just like, well, I'm just one of those troops, you know, just staying home and living how I want while the army, no, no, there's no neutrality here. your sin will not go unpunished. Or maybe there's one here, and in your heart, man, you've hid it well, but in your heart you know you're openly hostile to God. You really think that your sin will not find you out. You really think that you'll just press on to be in being a little God yourself, and all of it's just going to work out in the end. You really think that you are captain of your faith and master of your soul, that you're the one in control, and that all of your plans and dreams will just come to fruition. But I remind you of a word in verse 25. Why did the Gentiles rage and the people's plot end, what's the word, vain? I'm just gonna tell you, your plots are not going to come to fruition. I mean, even if you could keep this whole charade going for a hundred years, your plans against God and his anointed, I'll tell you what they'll come to, nothing. And then he will break your teeth. and you will be cast off into hell forever. And I say it again, because of the news of Kirk Cameron this last week, who was denied the eternity of hell. I say it again, we stand against that. Eternal conscious torment. Thank you, brother. Eternal conscious torment. That concludes point one. That is the plot. I'm not trying to, I hesitate even to give this example. But as I consider that this week in my office, I wept for our community. Because I thought, why would people in this community plot against the righteous rule of God? Why would you? The Bible is replete with time after time after time showing us the beauty of God, and the holiness of God, and the goodness of God, and the righteousness of God, and all of His ways are just, and all of His ways are perfect, and all of the ways are upright. He is the treasure in the field. He is the blessing. Why vainly plot against such a good and holy and wonderful God? Right? It's like at work, you have a benevolent boss, and he wants to give everyone a raise, and he wants to do good things for everyone, and you're like, let's get rid of that guy, right? Why do you want to get rid of God? This is the evil and destructiveness of sin, and perhaps even some among us have bought into this lie and evil and deception. What can be done about it? Well, that's going to bring us to the next point. Because if not for the next point, what can be done about it is nothing. Even with you, left to ourselves, there's nothing that could or would be done. We would go to hell shaking our fist at God, blaming him all the way down for our rebellion. Well, this brings us to point two. God is able to turn us from rage to redemption. So secondly, the plan. The plan, the plight before Christmas is answered by the plan of Christmas and then beyond. We'll do some heavy lifting here, but let me read verse 27 and 28. For truly in this city, there were gathered together against your holy servant, Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place. That's some preliminary or periphery. Uh, thoughts here. They're not directly like the point of the text, but there's some things like, whoa, look, I mean, so one is this. Psalm two is not merely the words of David, but the new Testament understood the old Testament is the words of the Holy Spirit. See, that's there in verse 25, who threw the mouth of your father, David, your servant said by the Holy Spirit, who wrote Psalm two, God? Yes, David. Yes. No, who wrote it? David, yes. God, yes. David wrote as the Holy Spirit worked in him to perfectly write exactly what he had to be written. The scriptures, including Psalms, by the way, including Acts, including every book from Genesis to Revelation, are the words of God, breathed out through the writings of men. Inerrant, infallible, authoritative, sufficient, necessary, clear. Nobody in here surely thinks this, but just in case, let me push back. And if you have the thought in your mind, well, we can't trust the Bible because it's written by men. No, no, no. The Bible is written by God through men. God making straight lines through crooked sticks, right? You understand that analogy? You go to the dirt and you're like, you're going to draw a straight line? Well, you can use a crooked stick to draw a straight line. And how much further? And more awesome is God using fallen men to perfectly preserve His infallible Word. And you need to know that the prophecies of the Old Testament could be so accurately predicted to the minutest detail because it's God who gave them and they are the unfolding of God's perfect plan. And we see here that Psalm 2 has a specific fulfillment in the life of Christ. So let me say this, everything that I just said in the last point is true, but everything I said in the last point is really more general application. Rather, here we see a specific fulfillment, okay? Now, I need you to see it. So, look at verse 25. So, they're praying this, and then they're saying this. So, why did the Gentiles rage, and the people's plot in vain, the kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and against His anointed? For, verse 27, for truly in this city there were, oh, looky here, same word, gathered together. Gathered together is in verse 26, gathered together is in verse 27. They are saying that this is a fulfillment here of this psalm. Against your holy servant whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel. There actually is profound application here. One is, the church in Jerusalem sees itself, not as pitted against Israel, but itself as eschatological Israel. That is, the fulfillment. It sees unbelieving Israel, physical Israel that is, unbelievers, even today, the nation of Israel, on the same level as the Gentiles. That's from the text. Why did the Gentiles, verse 25, why did the Gentiles rage and the people's plot in vain? Notice what they call Israel, physical Israel. Why did the Gentiles rage and the people's plot in vain? Look at verse 27. Along with the Gentiles and the what? The peoples of Israel. You understand? They have profound better theology than some of our politicians, right? The peoples of Israel, that is the physical descendants of Abraham, do not have a special status with God unless they believe on Christ. Those who do not believe on Christ are lumped in with the Gentiles. So if you have a politician, say, well, the reason that we have to be aligned with the nation of Israel today is because that nation is God's chosen people. You can know that they have not studied their Bible well. That's just the reality. Now, I'm not arguing an opinion on geopolitical policy. And we can work through that, okay? I'm talking about in the Middle East, particularly. But I will say this, I've been asked this and I'll say this clearly. You know what the most important thing that needs to happen in the nation of Israel and all the other people groups over there? They need to repent of their sins and believe the gospel. They need Christ. Okay, but we're talking about a specific fulfillment here. So you have gathered in verse 26, then it's verse 27. So the point is the kings, the Gentiles, the rulers, and the peoples are fulfilled in these four groups. Pilate, Herod, Romans, Jews. You see that? Let me show it to you again. So the kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and against his anointed. For truly in this city, they were gathered together against your holy servant, whom you anointed, both Herod Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles, the Romans, and the peoples of Israel. You see that? Now, how could God, the Holy Spirit, predict that this was going to come about in this way? Well, did God just know that these events were going to happen? He could see into the future so He knew this was going to happen. Well, He does know all future events. Of course that. We confirm, we affirm that, we believe that. He even knows things that could happen that don't happen. We get it. But there's something much stronger that's being said here by the Holy Spirit through Luke's writing. Remember, the Holy Spirit wrote this too. So verse 28, so they're gathering together and what are they doing? You just saw what they were going to do. No, that's not what Luke says, or he writes it here. The church is saying this, and Luke is recording this. A very great theology to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place. Now, that's just from the text. We'll focus for a moment. Some of your translations I've looked on, I know they don't have the word predestined, so I'll give you the Greek word. It's prooridzo, and that's a compound word. Not that you know what the word oridzo means, but it's two words. The prefix pro, you may know, it just means beforehand. But oridzo, it has the idea of like a boundary, like a limit, a determination, if you will. And so the word pro goes before that, so beforehand. So the word means to make a determination, to set a determination beforehand. That's what the word means. It's rendered actually quite well by the English word predestined, which you guys understand. That's two words, pre, before, destined. Well, you know what destined means, to set a determination. So actually, I'll put it this way. It's not hard. What is being communicated in verse 28 is not hard for our little peanut Perry County brains to understand. It's not hard to understand. What's difficult is for sinful man to accept it. But it's not hard. It's not hard to understand what is being communicated. What's being communicated is what's being communicated. They did whatever God's hand and God's plan had predestined to take place. So Pontius Pilate and Herod and the Gentiles and the Jews, they were committing their own actions as their own, as moral agents, if you will. They chose to do what they did in killing Jesus. Of course. Yet at the same time, they were acting precisely in accordance with God's predetermined, foreordained, predestined plan. One Greek lexicon defines Proorizo this way, the omniscient God has determined everything in advance, both persons and things in salvation history, with Jesus Christ as a goal. Okay, so you said, well, I don't know if I believe that. God has determined everything, predestined everything. Well, I don't agree. Well, first of all, let me say this. You don't have to agree. We can still be in fellowship. But I'm going to argue my side, which I think is biblical, right? I don't hold any positions that I think are unbiblical. You get it, right? If you hold a position, I hope you think it's biblical. There's some reasons that you ought to believe this. First, it's logical. God has predestined every raindrop, every comet, every particle of dust, all events great and small, and yet all persons are still real moral agents responsible for their actions. That's not illogical. Just because it's a mystery doesn't make it illogical. Secondly, it's confessional. It's logical, it's confessional. We read earlier from chapter three, paragraphs one and two, I won't read that again, it's kinda long, but I will read from our confession, so read that this week with your family, but I'll read from chapter five of our confession, just to give you some more confessional underpinning. Chapter one and two, God the, sorry, paragraph one and two of chapter five, God the good creator of all things and his infinite power and wisdom upholds, directs, arranges, and governs all creatures and things. from the greatest to the least, by His perfectly wise and holy providence, to the purpose for which they were created. He governs according to His infallible foreknowledge and the free and unchangeable counsel of His own will. His providence leads to the praise of the glory of His wisdom, power, justice, infinite goodness, and mercy. All things come to pass unchangeably and certainly in relation to the foreknowledge and decree of God, who is the first cause. Thus, nothing happens to anyone by chance or outside of God's providence, yet by the same providence, God arranges all things to occur according to the nature of second causes, either necessarily, freely, or in response to other causes. It's confessional. It's logical it's confessional, but you don't want to be convinced by that? That's fine. Thirdly, it's biblical. It's biblical. Friends, this is what the text says. For truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, okay? Both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel. They're gathered against Christ. Verse 28, to do whatever They wanted, no, I mean, they are doing whatever they wanted, but the text makes it clear. They're doing whatever your hand, oh God, your plan, oh God, had predestined to take place. That's just what the text says, right? And you say to me, well, I'll give you that. Okay, I'll give you that, fine. I see it, it's in the text, it's plain, you really can't argue it. But that's just talking about the cross. He predestined the cross. That's just one event, not everything. Okay. Well, there's other passages we go to, I'm not going to go to tonight, today. But listen to me, just think through that, what you just said. I know I made you say it, but just think through it. First, it's not just one event. This is the central event in human history. This is the biggest event in human history. It is the event of all events. Second thing about this, in order for this event to occur precisely in the way that God said it would, do you understand all the billions upon billions upon billions of lesser events that had to line up exactly right? Of course you don't understand it, and I don't understand it either. Why? Because you're not God, and I'm not God. You see this meme one time, it said, you go back in time and you move a chair. You just move a chair. You move a chair one little inch, and then it's like everything is out of whack now, right? Because that one little move of the chair sets off a chain of events, how everything just unfolds. That chair leads to this, leads to this, leads to that, and it changes the future, if you will. It's showing the importance of all these little bitty events. And of course, the reality is this is God's world, and this is God's decree, and this is how he has done it. And nothing comes to pass unless God has decreed all things that come to pass. Say it that way, right? None of this comes to pass unless God decrees all things to happen. No, just listen to me. If he doesn't control the events of history and he just foresees them, he just knows that they're gonna happen this way. Listen to what that says. Jesus didn't come on a rescue mission for his people. It just happened to be that way. And we would not say, amazing grace, how sweet to sound. We would say, amazing luck, how great it was. We're so lucky that all the events of human history just so happened to shake out that way. God knew they were going to happen, and we're all real lucky that they happened. But that's not what the text says below. It says to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place. And we've already seen this in Acts chapter 2. I'll flip over there, chapter 2 verse 23. Peter has said this, this Jesus delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God. There's a very clear truth revealed to us in Acts. The plight before Christmas is answered by the foreordained plan of a sovereign God. Even the plight itself falls under God's decree as part of His plan to bring glory to His Son by rescuing an undeserved people for Himself by sovereign grace. You might say, well, you know, I don't like that, I don't believe that, I don't want that. But if I could just gently and pastorally press here, I would say that this is because there is an aversion in man's flesh to not want to relinquish control to the God of the universe. But let me plead with Providence Baptists for a second. God is God. And you are not. And that's a good thing. God has ordered His universe under His plan and His hand. That's what verse 28 says, His hand, which, by the way, is to do whatever your hand. That is an anthropomorphism. It's ascribing a human characteristic to God, but it's highlighting His ongoing activity in this universe. For example, do you know the Bible says something like this, Psalm 104, 14? You cause the grass to grow. Yes, He uses means. Yes, He uses the sun and rain and oxygen. But His divine hand is even behind the blades of grass growing out of the ground. He's not the divine watchmaker that has just set everything up and all these laws, and He's wound it up, and He throws it out, and He just watches it tick, tick, tick, tick. And then every now and then, He involves Himself in it. All things are flowing out of His sovereign decree. All things, big and small, are under His divine, providential control and guidance. It's all there, and trust me, you want that. If you're a believer, you want that, because it means everything has a purpose with God. You may not understand it all, but I can tell you this, God does, and not only does He understand it, He has a plan, and His plan is going to come to fruition, and it's going to receive glory, glory, glory, glory to Christ. All things, all things. Why were you born here and not in the Middle East? Why were you born in the 20th century or the 21st century, some of you younger ones, and not in the 14th century? Your flat tire, your miscarriage. I know what I just said. All things great and small and hard and good and deep and heavy are under the sovereign control of a great and glorious God. It scares me? No! Don't let it scare you. Let it build a foundation for life and godliness and worship. God has decreed to the minutest detail, without being the author of sin in any way, to remind you what we read earlier in the service, God did this in such a way that He is neither the author of sin nor has fellowship with any in their sin. This decree does not violate the will of the creature or take away the free working or contingency of second causes. On the contrary, these are established by God's decree. In this decree, God's wisdom is displayed in directing all things and His power and faithfulness are demonstrated in accomplishing his decree. And it means that God has purpose. It means our lives have purpose. This is the God with a sovereign plan. The God who cannot be thwarted by you or kings or nations or governments or anything. He will have the final and definitive say because he had the first say. Augustus Toplady, He wrote, Rock of Ages says this, in his decree, God resolved within himself what he would do and what he would permit to be done by his providence. This effective and permissive will passes into external act and has its positive accomplishment. We're not robots. The text is clear on that. Verse 28, to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place. They're doing what they want to do. They're making their choices and they are responsible for their choices. Yes, they have choices and they have responsibility for their choices. But even in those choices, they only flow from God's overarching sovereign plan to ultimately accomplish His perfect will. And for this time of year, I'd say this, don't think about Christmas without the cross. to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place. What? God's perfect plan from eternity past to rescue a people chosen in Christ before time began, in time He enacts this plan, this glorious plan, the promise to adam he reveals in the seat of the woman all the prophecies are pointing to this to the coming one to rescue us the first christmas arrives and jesus is born of of not much note really i mean you know the shepherds come and and a couple years later the the wise men from the east come but but here he is born of the virgin mary truly god truly man he grows up even in his even in his young age you think about toddlers i love the children of our church but i can tell you right now there ain't no child in this church that's without sin But Jesus Christ was. Even in His youth, He obeys His parents. He honors all the commandments. Not just the fifth, but all of them. He's righteous in every way. Obedient to the law. Obtaining a righteousness for His bride. He goes to the cross. I'll quote the theologian Caleb Turnage. He says, if a person has a gospel without the satisfaction of wrath, they have bad news because nothing has been done to reverse their greatest plight. That's the plight we have before Christmas, is that the wrath of God must be satisfied against sinners. But praise God, we have a biblical gospel. Here is what God did to address our greatest plight. Truly in this city, they were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place. These groups thought that they were getting the upper hand. They hated Jesus. They wanted to get rid of him. Pontius Pilate felt like he was stuck maybe in a bit of a hard spot. But still, he hated Jesus. Let's get rid of this problem. So they all gather together and say, how will we get rid of this problem? Here's how we'll get rid of this problem. We'll kill him and we'll be done with it. I'll wash my hands, Pilate says. We'll be done with this. But here's the reality. These groups thought that they were getting the upper hand, but the first church understood this was all actually part of God's plan. that what their hands did, putting Jesus on the cross, God was doing so that He could propitiate His wrath against sinners, to slay His Son for sinners. What sovereign mercy there is! The nations that are raging against God, God chose sinners from among them all to save by pouring out His own holy wrath upon a substitute, Jesus Christ. This Jesus died the death of sinners, and on the third day, He rose again from the dead in order to clothe all of His own righteousness to those who call upon His name. Those who will believe. Those who will, by faith, trust the gospel. You're hearing preached this morning. You hear preached every week here. Will you trust it? Will you trust Christ? Will you repent of your sins? Your heart rage. Or maybe your heart indifference. You're plotting and dreaming. Will you turn from these things and turn to Christ? Psalm 212 says this, Kiss the Son, lest He be angry, and you perish in the way. For His wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are all those who take refuge in Him. You want to know the answer? You want to know the answer to the plight before Christmas? It's Jesus Christ. Take refuge in the Son. Your sin and your shame and your rebellion, you must trust His work, repent, and flee to Jesus Christ who became man for us to deliver us from the wrath to come and to reconcile us to God. Now, I'm just going to tell you, and we addressed it in Sunday school, and I don't want to go too crazy here, and I didn't have time to write a lot of notes on this. I just wrote a few scribbled thoughts. But listen to me, church. Is this communicated? I praise God in His providence that Stephanie did not hand me one of those little figurines that we got in the parade, because otherwise I don't know what I might do with it, and just it's away. So just listen to me. Is this communicated in the little figurines that say Jesus loves you? No, we're not right. Whatever you think about the second commandment, I think we can have a discussion on that. I think they're important. We had that discussion in Sunday school. But let me just say this, those little smiley plastic trinkets, caricatures of our Lord Jesus Christ, they are not preaching this. Jesus Christ is King of Kings and Lord of Lords, and what he has to offer is so much more than those little plastic foolish toys. They are making a mockery of the Son of God, and they are besmirching the glory and the grace of the gospel. Throw it all away! Cast it all into the lake of fire! But listen to me now! There is a gospel that really will save you! Our Lord Jesus Christ, ruling and reigning this universe, He's not a trinket you can fit in the pocket. He's not a God that you can control. He's not a God that is just knocking on your heart's door, just begging and pleading, I'm cold, I'm in the rain. No, He's King of kings and He's Lord of lords. But if you bow the knee to Him and you trust Him, His work is enough. He'll save you. Well, you scare me sometimes. You talk about all this predestination stuff. Listen, I'm just preaching the Bible, but I agree with this quote, W.S. Plummer, none who hear the gospel can give any solid reason for perishing. One question the wicked can never answer, why will you die? I don't care what you call me. You can't call me anything worse than I've been called. But I can tell you this, I believe this book, and you have no reason to give me right now why you should perish. No reason. Well, doesn't God, well, it's gonna stop it. You have no reason. Jesus Christ is set before us, children. Jesus Christ is set before you. Look to Him right now and be saved. Look and live. You will be saved. And all this stuff that we talk about the sovereignty of God, you better take it, church, into your home, into the marketplace, into the public forum, and declare His glory among the nations. Even as you say, all those who repent and believe the gospel, they'll be saved. You wanna be saved? You wanna be saved? Go to Christ! And what'll happen? You'll be saved. And one day you'll understand, maybe it won't be today, but one day you'll understand, maybe it won't even be in this life, though I hope it will. One day you'll understand the only reason you're saved is because of His sovereign grace. Many more applications, and I know that we are gonna partake of the Lord's Supper. Let me just give a few thoughts, an overarching application. Will Providence Baptist Church believe about God what the church in Jerusalem believed about God? The church of Christ is invincible in God's hands. In the midst of trial and tribulation, we can depend on our sovereign God. We can praise him. We can pray. to Him for gospel conviction in this dark world, for clarity. We can be confident in the hardest days. And listen, I'm going to tell you, the sovereignty of God is not something that just leaves you cold. It brings you security. As you weep and as tears fall down your face, it's like our Lord Jesus is catching those. He knows, He knows, and He is with us. And He has purpose. God wins. Psalm 2 goes on to say that the Lord and His anointed laugh at the wicked. The king prevails. His kingdom is forever. Not a tear you cry falls out of His sovereignty. He knows our fears. He knows our sorrows. He knows our pains. We look to the path ahead. We can't understand it all. The other morning we were driving around, it was yesterday morning, it was so foggy, I can't see the road ahead. But I know that God has already gone before us. You really can trust Him. It doesn't bring complacency, but security, the sovereignty of God that is. Comfort for enduring the storm. God has not left you. He will not leave you. He is good. There is purpose. And He will see you through to the end. And if you need proof of it, it's right here in verse 28, the gospel. To do whatever your hand and your plan and predestined take place. If God foreordained and predestined the most reprehensible, disgusting, event in human history, the murder of the God man, Jesus Christ. And yet he did so without being the author of sin to bring about the good of his people and the glory of his name. Then we can know that all lesser events fall under his sovereignty. I'll say this finally, there's a resolve in my heart and I hope that is welling up in your heart. that until there is no breath left in my lungs, I'm going to tell the people in this place. Why this place? Because it's where God's put us. I'm gonna tell the people in this place about the goodness of God in the face of Jesus Christ. You wanna talk about Christmas? Great, I like Christmas if you didn't know. There is good news. God has come to dwell with us in all the darkness, and all the sin, and all the misery, and all the heartache, and all the pain. God has an answer for it all, but it's in Jesus Christ. God has come, robed in human flesh, to experience our sorrows, and our pains, and our temptations, yet without sin. to complete all the things that we were called by God to complete, and yet we never did, we never could, we never would. But Jesus did it all. And He walked to the cross in joy, for the joy, the Bible says, set before Him. He endured the cross, despising the shame. What was that joy? The glory of gathering His bride to Himself. That's the gospel. There's rescue from man's plight against God. There's salvation by the work of Jesus Christ. God will save for his glory. There's redemption from your rage, but it's only in the gospel. Look and live, repent and believe it. Plight before Christmas. There's a plan to rescue. Will you believe it? Will you give it to others? Brother Alex.