Welcome to Unveiled Faces, a Redeemer Presbyterian Church podcast. Please enjoy our feature presentation. Why do the heathen rage and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against his anointed, saying, let us break their bands asunder and cast away their cords from us. He that setteth in the heavens shall laugh. The Lord shall have them in derision. Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure. Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion. I will declare the decree. The Lord hath said unto me, Thou art my son, this day have I begotten thee. Ask of me. and I will give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron. Thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel. Be wise, now therefore, O ye kings. Be instructed, ye judges of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in him. Shall we pray? Almighty God, our heavenly Father, we thank you for the word that you have given to us. We pray that you will speak to us from your word, that we will take this word with us in our hearts throughout this week, that we will be strengthened and encouraged and not be troubled and cast down because of our circumstances. For we know that this is all part of your will for our lives. And we pray, Father, that we would seek rather to glorify you in thought and word and deed. And may, Father, we stand firm upon the word of God in all that we think and do and say. Bless the ministry of the word. We pray, Father, that what is said would be said according to the word of God and accurate and clear. and that it would be received into hearts that would bring forth fruits into righteousness. And this we pray in Jesus name, amen. It has been said that the second and third century Christians were greatly first troubled because of the persecutions. We know the stories about how that they were thrown alive to the lions and all kinds of horrible things. If we read Fox's Book of Martyrs, we could get some more detail there. But the thing that encouraged the Christians as they greeted one another, it was, as I've been told, I've tried to search it out historically, but history has it that they would greet one another with these words, the Lord reigns. Caesar has a place of government, but it's the Lord in heaven who reigns. And so the message is titled the triumphant reign of Christ. We are living in what is called the last days, the coming of Christ to his second coming is considered the last days. And this is the time that the Lord is reigning and he's reigning triumphantly. And so, congregation of the Lord Jesus Christ, in Psalm 2, we want to see how that David declares the glorious and triumphant reign of Christ's kingdom. As a member of the church, you are part of that kingdom. And there are those who profess faith that have gone to be with the Lord and are in the church triumphant. Don't be discouraged by what we see today, because the Lord is building his church according to his eternal plan and purpose. Nevertheless, Christ's kingdom shall sit in judgment of all sinners and their transgressions in all the kingdoms of this world. Christ will judge those without the kingdom of God. They will be judged. and God will bring all our enemies and put them under his feet. I like those words that Paul speaks at the end of the book of Romans. He says to the church at Romans that Christ shall put Satan under your feet shortly. And so Christ is reigning at the right hand of God. And this is a time for Christians to rejoice in the triumphant reign of Christ. Matthew Henry notes that the first three verses of Psalm 2 are a description of the hatred of human nature against the Christ of God, and that no better comment is needed upon the world's hatred for Christ than the Apostle Paul's words in Acts 4, verses 27 and 28. which says four, of a truth against thy holy child, Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the people of Israel were gathered together for to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel commanded. determined before to be done. The things that happen to the Christians, those good and bad things, good and bad are brought into our lives. The bad is for our good, and the good is for our good. So all things are working together for good to those who love God and who are called according to his purpose. Note, if you will, also in verse 7, I'll take the more difficult passage out of this context, and we'll talk about it just for a minute. The passage says in verse 7, Thou art my son this day, have I begotten thee? And what does that mean? Well, if you'll take your Bibles and turn to Acts 13.33, the Apostle Paul gives us an exposition of this. Thou art my son, this day have I begotten thee. Now when you look at that, we know that Jesus Christ was eternally generated from the Father. And yet it speaks about a specific time of him being begotten. And it's not to be understood in that way. We see in Acts 13.33, the Apostle Paul says this, God hath fulfilled the same unto us, their children, in that he hath raised up Jesus again, as it is also written in the second Psalm. This is Paul commenting upon the second Psalm and verse seven. And he quotes it saying, thou art my son, this day have I begotten thee. And so, the beginning of the son here, we find if you study the Acts 1333 passage, refers to the resurrection. It wasn't that Jesus was begotten in time, he was eternally begotten. He is eternally generated, the eternal generation of the son. But the sense that the resurrection has of being said that Jesus was begotten is this, that it was the resurrection of Christ. And if you look at the context there in Acts 13, it was the resurrection of Christ that actually pointed to and confirmed the sonship of Christ, that he is the Son of God. Matthew Poole says of the words, this day have I begotten thee, it's not as if Christ at his resurrection began, as I was saying, to be the Son of God, but then, he was manifested to be so at his resurrection, which before, whilst he was in a suffering condition, was not apparent. That this is the right understanding of The Lord Jesus Christ being begotten that day, as it is said in Psalms 2, verse 7, and also in Acts 13, 33, we must go to Romans 13, chapter 1, verses 3 and 4. And it makes it clear that what is being spoken of here This day have I begotten thee. It's talking about how that the resurrection confirmed the truth of the eternal generation of Jesus Christ. Notice, if you will, Romans 1, verses 3 through 4. Concerning God's Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, which was, these are the words of the Apostle Paul, our Lord, who was made of the seed of David according to the flesh and declared He was, notice, he was declared to be the son of God with power according to the spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead. His resurrection declared him to be the son of God. And so when we come to that passage, remember, this is not a proof text to deny the eternal generation of Christ, saying in that day, but rather, He is the Son of God from all of eternity. There are four things that I would like for us to note here in this passage of Scripture, Psalm 2. The first is, in verses one through three, the enemies of the Lord oppose the reign of Christ. If we don't have resistance from our enemies, something is wrong. We will have resistance. The enemies of the Lord oppose the reign of Christ. Verses 1 through 3. Verses 4 and 5. The derision of God against the enemies of Christ and his wrath will go against the unbelievers and the enemies of Christ. We see that in verses 4 and 5. Verses 6 through 9, we see that the kingdom of Christ shall stand forever because of God's eternal decree. And then in verses 10 through 12, the Lord appeals to sinners to escape. This is to those who oppose the kingdom of God, the enemies of the cross of Christ. The Lord appeals to those sinners to escape the wrath of God and destruction by being reconciled to Jesus Christ. So note, let us note, if you will, verses one and two, And so now is the kingdom of Christ not only of this world, but we see the unbelieving world is outraged against Christ. This we see in verses one and two. Why do the heathen, that is the unbelieving Gentiles, rage? That is, the word rage actually is a great gathering, but it's a tumultuous gathering. Gil, in speaking of this word rage that the unbeliever, the Gentiles have against Christ and of his kingdom, he says, the word is expressive of gathering together and that of a multitude. It intends a tumultuous gathering together as that of a mob with great confusion and noise. And so the Gentiles, the Roman soldiers, gathered together, even multitudes of them, and came out with Judas at the head of them with swords and staves to apprehend Christ and bring him to the chief priest. Also Matthew 26, verse 47, these assembled together. This is a picture of the word rage that it conveys. They assembled, that is the adversaries of Christ, they assembled together in Pilate's hall when Christ was condemned to be crucified and insulted him in a most rude and shocking manner. The Gentiles raged, tumultuous gathering against Christ. Now notice it says in verse one, it says the people. The people here referring to the people of of the Jews. You have the heathen, that's the Gentiles, and the people, remember this is an Old Testament passage, and it's referring to Israel, but unbelieving Israel. They do not believe in Christ, they imagine a vain thing. Just look, if you will, in the gospels, how often when Jesus went preaching the gospel, the Jews came upon him and sought his life many times. And so the people here, they imagine a vain thing. The kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against his anointed. This is a passage written by David some 700 years or more before our Lord Jesus Christ. And we see here that this is spoken of, of how that Christ and his kingdom is despised by the world. Those who are not in the kingdom of God. They gathered together, they took counsel, and this certainly applies to our Lord Jesus Christ when he was arrested and taken and crucified. They gathered together against the Lord and against his anointed. The Lord, all capitals, refers to Jehovah, the anointed here in Greek means Christ, Christos, Creole, saying, let us break their bands asunder and cast away their cords from us. the heathen, and even those unbelieving Jews, do not want to be bound by the scriptures. They did not want to be bound, the Jews that were the leaders of the church of the old covenant When Christ came, those leaders were Jesus' chief enemies. They would not be bound to the teachings of Christ, and they were constantly wanting to find that his teachings were not congruent with the teachings as they revealed in the Old Testament scriptures, but we know that Christ was exactly right, for he is truth, but they not understanding correctly the truth. yet they wanted to cast asunder those teachings that Christ was teaching from the Word of God. The apostles of the New Testament have experienced that fulfillment that is spoken of here in verse 2. We go to the book of Acts. If you want to look at these passages, you'll see this tumultuous gathering against those who proclaim the gospel. Acts 4, verses 25 through 28. It says, who by the mouth of thy servant David has said, and Acts 4.25 here is quoting from Psalm 2. Notice there's, I'm going back and forth so you can see how that what was said in Psalm 2 is being fulfilled in the book of Acts. And we see this tumultuous gathering against God's people in Acts 4, verses 25 through 28. They say this, why did the heathen rage and the people imagine vain things? The kings of the earth stood up and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and against his Christ for of a truth against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod and Pontius. words with the Gentiles and the people of Israel were gathered together for to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to do." All the evil, all the wickedness that was done against Jesus by the unbelieving Jews and by the unbelieving Gentiles was actually, as it's stated here in Acts 4.28, that which the Lord had by His Eternal counsel had determined before to be done. They have imagined vain things. That is, they imagined things they could not bring to pass against the kingdom of God and of Christ. The word imagine has the sense of meditating upon vain things. You know, there are, and we could think of some that we know that their teaching is unorthodox, it's not true, it's not according to the scriptures. That's the censure of imagining vain things. And some will baser all of their theology upon false teachings. And it's just vanity. It's empty, it's nothing. In fact, it'll accrue to their own judgment in the day of judgment. Because they have the truth. They have the truth in the word of God. I like what Gil says, he says, these vainly imagine Jesus of Nazareth is not the Messiah. That was the big one that they imagined in their heart. And that the Messiah is not yet come. And in that, they are expecting and looking for him. I had an experience here just a couple weeks ago. With my wife, we were shopping and all of a sudden we had three young men. They were starting up a new group I'm not sure where they were coming from, but they said, did you know that the Lord Jesus Christ came back in 1948? I said, no, I never heard of that. I said, whoever is telling you that, they're telling you a lie. That is not true. The Lord Jesus Christ, when he comes a second time, you will know it. It's not going to be any kind of a secret coming. We have other eschatologies that speak of a secret rapture and that sort of thing. All of that is not true. The scripture constantly speaks of a visible coming of the Lord Jesus Christ in power and great glory with all the holy angels. They wouldn't entertain any opposition, so we thought best for us to just go on our ways. But there's all kinds of imagining of vain things, worthless, vain things. And we see it, even in our own day. And so it is important to note that it is in this passage, who are the chief ones that oppose the Messiah? Those in places of authority, the kings and the judges of the earth, oppose the Lord and the Lord Jesus Christ by despising the purposes of God's word and the law of God and establishing their own rules. For the reason of the rage of the Gentiles and the vain imagination of the Jews is that they do not want to submit to the reign of King Jesus. Thus they say in verse three. let us break their bands asunder and cast away their cords. Perhaps you know of people in your family that are unbelievers and you talk to them about the scriptures and what the scriptures has to say about our life and our conduct and they hear what you're saying and they say something like, well, we're in the Bible doesn't say that. And their first reaction is that they don't want to conform to those things. It's because of the heart is contrary to the will and purposes of God. Although the kings and the rulers rise up against the Lord, they shall be consumed, and Christ conquers them all. This we see in Psalm 46, verse six. The heathen raged, again it says. The kingdoms were moved. He uttered his voice. The earth melted. The Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our refuge. Secondly, as we said, we want to note in verses four and five, the derision and the wrath of God are against the enemies of Christ. Now we should not wish or pray for anyone's condemnation or anyone go to hell. but there is a derision of God and his wrath upon those who hear the truth and despise it. God is the judge of all the earth and he has established his only begotten son, the Lord Jesus Christ's throne in the heavens. He is seated there at the right hand of God. as we read in Psalm 11, verses four through six. The Lord is in his holy temple. The Lord's throne is in heaven. His eyes behold, his eyelids try the children of men. The Lord trieth the righteous, but the wicked in him that loveth violence, his soul hateth. Upon the wicked, he shall rain snares, fire and brimstone, and an horrible tempest. This shall be the portion of their cup. fire and brimstone, that's what fell on Sodom and Gomorrah, and horrible tempest. All of this is the portion of the cup of those who despise the teachings of the Lord. Note in verse four, the scripture says, he that sitteth in the heavens, this is God's deriding unbelievers who mock God and who mock his truth, They laugh at him, but the scripture says God will laugh at them. To have someone in derision means that very thing. It means to mock them. God will mock them. They mock God, and God will mock them, and God will have them in derision. The folly of the heathens' ways against Christ's kingdom is revealed. The Lord will laugh and ridicule their foolishness because they would not follow nor obey the wisdom and truth of the commandments of God. C. H. Spurgeon said, the attempts of Christ's enemies are easily ridiculed. He has them in all their attempts in derision. And therefore, the Virgin, the daughter of Zion, has despised them. The sinner's follies are the just sport of God's infinite wisdom and power. And those attempts of the kingdom of Satan, which in our eyes are formidable, in God's eyes are despicable. God will laugh. Psalm 37 verse 13 says, the Lord shall laugh at him, for he seeth that his day is coming. We could go on and name other verses. So in the raging of and the vain imaginations of wicked men, verse five says, then shall he speak unto them in his wrath and vex them with great trouble in his sore displeasure. God, with his dreadful judgments in his divine providences, shall severely punish rebellious sinners who have heard the word of truth and despised it. The enemies of Christ shall not prevail in attempting to thwart the kingdom of God. I avoid saying I want to be clear because we're hearing that a lot in the media and I usually take it to mean they're about ready to tell me a lie. Let me be clear. So I almost said that, so I don't want to go down that way. But what we want to note here is the Lord does reign. If we take nothing else away from the message today, take away this, that which the Christians in the second and third century said to one another, the Lord reigns. You know, those who hold office will come and go. We've seen it. Some of us have lived long enough to see a generation or so come and go. But they will be gone. What we as younger generation, what we should be doing is putting forth the truth. And the more they empty out their seat, fill that seat with truth, That's what we are called to do. Otherwise, if we just keep on not being very active in propagating the faith, we'll see more and more evil coming upon us. In verses seven or nine, I want to note further that the kingdom of Christ shall stand forever. And it stands forever by the decree of God. When God decrees something, it cannot be reversed. And he has decreed that his son, his only begotten son, shall reign, and it says in Heleliacorus, he shall reign forever, forever and ever. And so he's there, he will never abdicate it. Now we look around us and we see what the world is doing and how it seems like they're going away without any impunity, but we know that they are going to be dealt with in the day of judgment. We should not hope for that, we should pray for their repentance. But we know that Jesus will reign forever because of the divine decree. This we see in verses six through nine, read those verses. I will declare the decree, there it is. That decree that God has made cannot be changed. The Lord has said unto me, thou art my son, this day have I begotten thee. Ask of me and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance to judgment and also the heathen for the inheritance to those who repent and enter into the kingdom of God through the gospel. And Christ is going to inherit the uttermost parts of the earth. The gospel is to go to the uttermost parts of the earth. That's why we are to be busy, engaged, preaching the gospel, because we want the uttermost. That has never gone away, the Great Commission, to preach the gospel to the uttermost parts of the earth. That is the Lord Jesus' inheritance. And we are an instrument by which Those who come into the kingdom of God hear the gospel and come in. We need to become very proactive in propagation of the gospel, which we can do in many ways. So what is going to be happening with the unbelieving? We're told in verse 9, Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron. If you want to really break something, get a rod that's made out of iron. Especially if it's a piece of potter, you could break it into thousands of pieces. This is a picture of the judgment that God has against the unbeliever, to those who mock God. Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron, thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel. So let us not be weary in well-doing, as the Apostle Paul says. We know that the Lord has inherited the throne as king, and he shall reign always. I could give you a number of passages, but for time's sake, I do want to at least read to you what is found in Daniel 7, verses 13 through 14, concerning the reign of Christ. Daniel says, I saw in the night visions, and behold, one like the Son of Man, that is Jesus, came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the ancient of days, and they brought him near before him. And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, languages, should serve him. His dominion is and everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom, that which shall not be destroyed. And so then, those that will not submit to the authority of Christ, as ordained of his Father, shall be utterly destroyed, and that we see in verse 9. Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron. thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel. God promises to beat down the adversaries of the kingdom of God with death blows of an iron rod and dashing the pottery against a rock into pieces. Psalm 89 verse 23, the scripture says, and I will beat down his foes, those who oppose Jesus Christ, seated on the right hand of God, the time will come, it may not be right away, it may not be in your lifetime, but the scripture says, and God says, I will beat down his foes before his face and plague them that hate me, but my faithfulness and my mercy shall be with him and in my name shall his horn be exalted and so then, All who will submit then to the government of Christ through repentance and faith in the gospel shall not perish. That's the promise. of John 3.16, and we need to, when we speak of the warning against the unbelieving and the condemnation and judgment that comes, we need to also speak to them of the hope of the gospel. That is, humble yourself, believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved. May God give us that grace to be faithful. Lastly, note if you will, in verses 10 through 12, And this goes along with what I'm just saying. All that we've spoken of before was God's judgment against those who despise the kingdom of Christ and his reign. But verses 10 through 12 have to do with God's appeal to sinners to escape the wrath of God and their destruction and be reconciled to the Son of God, to the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 10 says, you know, don't be foolish. Don't be a fool. Be wise, verse 10. Now therefore, O ye kings, now there's sometimes that we live in a time when there's a misunderstanding about the relationship of God and government. And I'm not advocating for a state church, okay? But kings are to be in subjection to God. They are not a god unto themselves. And we are living in a time when those who are in authority are treated as though they're above the law. And so the scripture here, the Holy Spirit, declares to kings, and kings, should want to be, if they're not, hopefully they're wise, but they should be wise. And if they would be wise, then they will be instructed by what the word of God says. Be wise, therefore, O ye kings, be instructed, you judges of the earth. Instead then of opposing God as they were doing, the scriptures telling them, They are to reverence God. They are to reverence Christ who sits on the throne for all eternity. Turn from your foolish ways of trying to oppose the kingdom of God and serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling. Rejoice with trembling. That's having the joy of God. but also the fear of God simultaneously. And verse 12 says then, to the kings, and if it's for the kings, it's for all in the kingdom as well, be reconciled to God. Now the kiss that is mentioned here of kissing the son in verse 12 is a symbol of reconciliation. Be reconciled to God. And that reconciliation is through the mediatorship of Jesus Christ. You cannot come to God apart from Jesus Christ. Kiss him, be reconciled to God. And blessed are all they that put their trust in him. So then God's merciful appeal to the adversaries of the church is be reconciled to God. As we preach the gospel, this is what we strive for. We don't strive for numbers. We don't strive for our specific selfish cause or purpose. We strive that God may be glorified and that men's souls may truly be reconciled to God. Perhaps you've read of some of the accounts of what happens when God moves in a mighty way in a city. If you read some of Jonathan Edwards' accounts of the Great Awakening, you'll see that. Places where there was a lot of wickedness, even publicly, and where speech on the sidewalk was unfit for one's ears. After the Great Awakening came, they were all speaking things about the Scriptures and their love for Christ and their love for one another. Wouldn't it be wonderful to have that kind of a culture to be living in? It happened and it can happen again, but it comes by being reconciled to Christ. Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in him. And I pray that we would live up to that which is in our coinage. I have a little, it's not really a hobby, it's a thing that when I see coins on the street, I don't care if it's a penny, I think of, you know, there's something on there that is of value. It says, even though it's a penny, it says in God we trust. I don't like cars rolling over. I've seen, I've picked up pennies, you can hardly recognize them. But I know what it says, in God we trust. And I just put it in a little jar. And it's a reminder, you know, we are a nation that ought to respect God. Even it means picking up coins off the street. Show respect to God. And so then it is by the infinite and amazing love and grace of God that unworthy sinners are delivered from the wrath of God. The God who punishes with great wrath and infinite wrath to those who don't repent is also a God of eternal and infinite love. And we read of this in John 3, 16. So when we speak about the wrath part and that which God reveals in the scripture against sinners, we want to declare even more loudly the love of God. As we hear in John 3, 16 through 18, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved. He that believeth on him is not condemned, but he that believeth not in him is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. What we have here in the gospel, I heard the terms used once before and I will use it now, and that is the gospel is the Father's indiscriminate proposal of mercy to sinners. for the forgiveness of their sins, and peace with God by true repentance and faith. Thus the Apostle Paul says in Romans 10, verses 12 through 13, for there is no difference between Jew and the Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him. For whosoever shall call upon him shall be saved. As I close, I would like to close with these words. Some of you are familiar with Joel Beeky, and he has a Bible that he has put out. It's called the Reformation Study Bible. And by way of application of these words from this psalm, I chose to share with you the words that he has in his commentary on Psalm 2. He says the world is full of opposition to Christ. Hence, there is need for powerful and infectious grace to convict and enlighten and persuade. Churches should therefore concentrate on gospel preaching and prayer. For the work of the Holy Spirit, whatever the opposition, No human power can ever nullify or undo the divine purpose. Are you allowing pessimism to affect you? Or are you hanging on the hope that Christ's kingdom will prevail in every nation? God commands all nations, as we noted here in this psalm, all nations and kings to submit to his son, to be reconciled to his son, to kiss his son. And let us begin with ourselves. Have we kissed the son? Have we obeyed his command to repent and believe? One day, maybe very soon, Christ will return as judge. Will he find us serving him? Eternity's destiny is linked to the Son of God. May God give us grace to take the matter of propagating the gospel to the salvation of sinners, reconciling sinners to God. May we daily employ ourselves in this matter, and I can guarantee we will see a change in our country. May God give us that grace. This has been a presentation of Redeemer Presbyterian Church. For more resources and information, please stop by our website at visitredeemer.org. All material herewithin, unless otherwise noted. Copyright Redeemer Presbyterian Church. Elk Grove, California. Music furnished by Nathan Clark George. Available at nathanclarkgeorge.com.