The rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against his anointed, saying, Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us. He who sits in heaven laughs, the Lord holds him in derision. Then he will speak to them in his wrath and terrify them in his fury, saying, As for me, I have set my king on Zion, my holy hill. I will tell of the decree the Lord said to me, ask of me, sorry, you are my son, today I have begotten you. Ask of me, I will make the nations your heritage and the ends of the earth your possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel. Now therefore, O kings, be wise, be warned, O rulers of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are all who take refuge in him. Amen. And we know that God blesses his word. I've entitled this sermon, Rulers and Rebels. Rulers and Rebels. The Church of Christ at large, I think, is still reeling from shock at the massive cultural shift that has taken place over recent decades in the West. In fact, we could say that over 200 years of decline has almost, at least on the face of things, structurally put the Western Church in reverse. as the gospel force has backed off the culture. The dark age of the Enlightenment and the outlawing of God's Ten Commandments and the mixing up and confusion of sexuality, where believers are now regarded as extremist bigots instead of a salt and light and force for good in the culture, mark these things as very likely and indeed true. All of this has come upon us. For those who are younger, you may think that this is quite normal, but when you've lived through the past and how God blessed the church in the West, you will know that this is a time of decline and difficulty and hardship. for God's people and God's gospel, at least in the Western world, as church buildings. Of course, church is not about buildings, but the buildings that they worshipped in and were once filled with songs of praise and happy congregations and generations following after generations being instructed in God's ways are now closed or sold as restaurants and furniture, warehouses and the like. So there really has been a huge shift and I think the Western Church has struggled to cope with that. We're kind of asking and scratching our heads, how do we respond? We're still in that position, I think. And this second gateway, Psalm 2, the first was Psalm 1, are like an entrance porch or entrance hallway or foyer into the Psalter, and they help us get our bearings back in this culture in which we're disorientated and confused. And here, David, by the Spirit of Christ, spoke God's response to all-out attack on his realm, his kingdom and his anointed or messiah. And certainly in David's life, if Saul, Absalom, Moab, Edom and Ammon attacked and rose against Jesse's son, the sweet singer of Israel, Jesus Christ, the ultimate Christ, the seed to whom David's whole life and sufferings and exaltation points, faced much, much worse. That's why this psalm is used frequently in the Book of Acts and throughout the Gospels and New Testament. Let's read there verse 1 and 2 of this psalm. Why do the nations rage, and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord, Jehovah, the divine name, and against his anointed one, his Messiah, his Christ. Literally in the Greek translation. And the first thing we see in these verses there is rebellion. Rebellion. Clearly, no love is lost here between the League of Nations and the Kingdom of God and the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. There's a futile, angry rebellion where the rebels draw battle lines and shake their fists at God to fight against Yahweh, Jehovah, and his King. Both subjects and rulers vote with their feet and their fists. As these United Nations brand his laws and decrees and statutes and standards and value and government by which he rules the world and directs his church, they view them as chains and bonds and shackles. We're enslaved to this God, to his King. and therefore they violently snap apart and cast off these bonds of heavenly rule. That's what's happening. Listen to their speech, put into their mouths in verse three. Let us burst their bonds apart. Get off, God. We don't want your rule and cast away their cords from us. So the first thing to say is that Christian people and godly people should not be at all surprised if presidents and the general populace are hell-bent in our days to make the gospel a relic of the past. Progress! That's what they want. What they really are saying is we want to forget about our past history, where the nation was grounded upon God, at least in some sense, where the gospel had a mighty influence and sway over the hearts and minds and lives of the people. Their pacts, laws, The unpopularity of believers, the threats and censorship people face. I see someone was rumoured at least to have been sacked because they dared stand against transgenderism in sport. I don't know whether or not that's just a conspiracy theory or true. It certainly could be true from what we see today. But these pacts they make, and the threats they issue, and the censorship and platforming that they exercise, and the prison cells that they threaten with and guide free speech with, are a danger to the church in some sense. It's likely God's people may suffer and suffer more in the coming times, but it's no disaster for the church or the progress of the Good News. It's a vain rebellion. Why do the nations and the people's plot in vain? It's angry, but it's futile. It won't succeed. It can't succeed. It won't work. It will fail. And that's a great encouragement to us. And as we think about this kingdom of God, this realm and dominion of Christ, as we say, well, do I myself want to be part of that? This kingdom. This kingdom that's vehemently and sometimes viciously and vociferously and violently and vitriolically opposed. Let me say this. Don't be put off. Don't think. Well, because it's hated and viciously and violently attacked, therefore it's not the true kingdom. Isn't that the mistake the Christ's own people made? They were expecting this triumphalist kingdom where the Messiah would come and sweep everything away with one clean brush and everything would be happy and rosy. And instead they got the cross, a persecuted suffering Christ. And if he's the head and we're the body, therefore there will be, generally speaking, not always, and in all kinds of various ways, it's not always uniform or the same, there will be this suffering body also. So don't be put off. Don't expect anything less. This is the standard response of the naturally sinful heart to the good news and the kingdom of Christ. It's not great, wonderful. Let's receive God's truth. It's resistance. It's antagonism. It's opposition. And if we sound this note of reality and realism, it will help us hold our nerve and keep our stance firm and courageous in the face of this tide of onslaught. And there's more encouragement then in the next section. in verses four through six, because not only do we see rebellion, but we see God's response to rebellion, which is ridicule, ridicule. He who sits in heaven, that's speaking of God, the King of heaven, the one who sits enthroned, who's always and perpetually and eternally reigning. That's the sense here. The one who sits in the heavens laughs. The Lord holds them in derision. When rebels fight Messiah, whether it's David or the son of David, the celestial monarch laughs. What do we make of this laughter? Well, it's not teaching us that God has a sense of humor. This is anthropomorphic language to show, really, what this opposition is truly like. It's laughable. It's worthy of mocking and scorn and derision. It's like seeing somebody, a cartoon strip, where there's this huge tank rolling on and some child with a pea shooter trying to stop it. It's ridiculous. It's worthy of derision and scorn. Or like grasshoppers down below, looking up to heaven, to God's throne, and shaking their little grasshopper, whatever they have, fists or claws or whatever, shaking them at God and thinking, we're strong. It's laughable. But it's not funny. This is a mocking, scornful laugh of wrath. And think of it, remember how it took the people of God so long to conquer Jerusalem, old rocky Salem, that fort perched on the rock. It wasn't really until David and his men by stealth at night under cover climbed up the water shaft that they took it from the Jebusites. And if that's true of the earthly Jerusalem, How much more true then of the kingdom of heaven and Christ's throne, for he is now being raised from the dead and declared son of God in Christ. He reigns in glory, in heaven, in power. That's his throne. How can they possibly reach up and fight against the new Jerusalem which is above? It's ridiculous. It's futile. It's stupid. God laughs. So if old Fortress Salem was safe from attack, rebels will crash and burn and smash as they insult God's installed and now immune prince. They could crucify him while on earth. but now glorified and exalted at God's right hand, our head safe from attack. He's impregnable. So let's learn from this that while evil laws and empires may threaten the kingdom of God and the people of God, for a time they cannot dent Christ. They cannot overthrow his church. There will always be a remnant which remains in this world. God will keep them and preserve them. Just like in the days of Elijah and the prophets of Baal, when the king's servant Obadiah kept two groups of 50 prophets in caves and fed and watered them. And the prophet Isaiah said, I am the only one left. And the Lord said, have 7,000 who have not bowed the knee to be ill. Far, far bigger than he thought. It may not be a silent majority, but it is a significant remnant which God always preserves by grace that his testimony for the truth might not fail. Think of it. God is the one who sees and weighs every heart. He lowers and he lifts, he humbles, he exalts, because he's the King of kings and Lord of lords, and he's all powerful, all seen and all knowing. Babylon had its day. with his hanging gardens. Nero had his hour of persecution when he torched the city of Rome and accused the Christians and they were persecuted and driven out in a semi-bloodbath. Stalin and Lenin and Trotsky are no more. Paul raged against the light until that light finally blinded his eyes and he had to bow to Jesus as Lord. You see, through these sufferings and attacks on the church, God actually marches his plan forward. They crucified Christ. And they said, we've gotten rid of him at last. Satan thought he had conquered Messiah and destroyed him, but God raised him up and he's now crowned in glory. And the sins of God's people are forgiven. You see how even the darkest, deadliest, most poisonous deed serves to take the purpose of God forward. and that should give us great confidence. So if God laughs and Christ suffers no hurt, don't be too distressed, but be encouraged and courageous. Whatever you have to suffer, this kingdom is secure and you have the hope of eternal life. And that's the key thing, that's the chief thing, our heavenly hope. And we're to set our hearts in glory. I'm struck by that phrase where Peter says in 1 Peter, set your hearts fully on the hope to be revealed. glory to be revealed. That's our hope. So we've seen firstly rebellion, we've seen ridicule and then we see what's this kingdom founded upon? What's the rock sure certain day? Well, the third thing is reign. We see reign. Look at verse seven through to nine where the psalmist says, I will tell of the decree the Lord said to me, you are my son, today I have begotten you. Ask of me and I will make the nations your heritage and the ends of the earth your possession. This royal decree is not a kind of temporary, flexible thing. This is a statute, literally. This is a kind of instruction or law that would be inscribed and engraved and carved upon a rock of stone. It's permanent. It can't be wiped out like the laws of the Medes and Persians. It cannot be revoked or changed. It will always stand. That's what we're taught here from this verb from which the noun comes, which means to engrave on rock. God's purpose is firm. I will tell of the rock-steady decree the Lord said to me. What is the content? You're my son, today I have begotten you. We see here in this verse Messiah's position as son and king, his possession of all the ends of the earth. and the permanence of his rule and government. Ask of me and I will make the nations your heritage, the ends of the earth. Now, David ruled basically the land of Israel, roughly as it is today. The borders really didn't extend much further than that. Whereas Solomon, his son, began to expand and enlarge the territory so that they extended widely all the way to Baghdad. It wasn't really the ends of the earth. It was from sea to river. But here, we've something greater. It's speaking in hyperbole. certainly of David's kingdom, but it's speaking of the hope of the ends of the earth, kingdom of Christ. Ask of me, God says, the father says to his son, and I will make the nations your heritage and the ends of the earth your possession. And this is going to be permanent. He's declared son from Zion. His dominion is to earth's end and the duration of his ruling realm has no end. That's the confidence, God's decree. What of this question of sonship? Lots of commentators talk about this, but David and his descendants, of course, became sons of God by adoption at their coronation. There's a sense in which, of course, all human beings are God's sons in a general vague sense, but certainly not in a spiritual sense. because we've forfeited that position through rebellion and sin. Our sonship in that sense has been lost. Spiritually speaking, then the descendants of David were declared sons of God when they were crowned kings. But of course the sonship of Jesus was different. It was always natural and eternal. He always was a son. He did not become the son. He always was the eternal son with the father and the spirit in the beginning. And yet at his baptism, his transfiguration, the voice came from heaven and declared him to be son. what he always was. He was now publicly known to be son of God. And then, Romans teaches us through his resurrection and exaltation, he was declared with power by God to be son. Meaning, He was in the place of human representative rule like the first man and now this divine son has restored human rule, putting everything under his feet and subduing the cosmos to the reign and the realm of Christ. Dutch theologian Abraham Kuyper, who actually I think was Prime Minister of the Netherlands some years ago, and he said this, there's not an inch of the earth over which Christ does not cry, it is mine. All earth belongs to Jesus Christ. And when this is believed and understood, it gives great courage and help and we seek the grace of God to strengthen us in this vision of the Great Commission. Remember what Jesus said in Matthew 28, when he rose from the dead, when he appeared to his disciples, and then ascended, just before he ascended, all authority is given unto me. Therefore, go teach, baptize the nations. Instruct them in everything I have commanded you. Why? Because this world belongs to Christ. He asked God the Father on the basis of his blood of redemption to give him the nations. And now he claims them as his own. So where to go teach and where to go preach to all nations. I wonder this morning, do you have that vision? It's all grounded and based on this decree. You shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel. So the fourth and final thing we see is repentance. We have seen rebellion, God's response of ridicule, the reason for our confidence is the fixed decree and reign of Christ, and finally repentance. Now therefore, O kings, be wise, be warned, O rulers of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way, for as wrath is quickly kindled, Blessed are all who take refuge in him. So in Psalm 1, blessed is the man who disregards the wicked way and walks in God's will. But now, salvation comes, this saving covenant blessing to all those who take refuge in God's King and Messiah. That's the way to be saved. People talk today very glibly about blessing. We can be blessed physically, materially, governmentally, nationally, but if we're not blessed spiritually, the condemnation and the curse and the wrath of God expressed through his agent of judgment, the Lamb, who he has appointed to judge will fall upon us. That's just as fixed as his reign. It's written in stone. And so, therefore, the nations are called in light of the throne and government of Christ to pay homage to him and repent The apostles weren't quite clear, weren't they, in light of the death of Christ and the resurrection of Christ on the third day and his exaltation after 40 days and the outpouring of the Spirit at Pentecost, that there is no other name, no other person or character or set of attributes belonging to that person or king by which we must be saved. We can only be saved through faith in Jesus. Without Christ, we cannot be saved. Saved from what, you say? Well, look. Kiss the son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled. quickly kindled. We're told in the book of Revelation that the princes and the rulers and the kings and the soldiers and the strong-hearted men of earth, these rebels we've been talking about, and those sinners who don't turn to Christ and acknowledge he is their king, When it comes in burning anger on the last day, they will cry, oh rocks, crushing rocks, fall upon us. Because that would be much better than to see the face of the wrath of the Lamb. Jesus is tender, meek, and mild as the Lamb. but he's also against unrighteousness, the awesome and fierce judge. Derek Kidner says this, God's patience is not placidity. Any more than fierce anger is loss of control. Christ never flew off the handle. His anger is this predictable response to sin. His laughter is not cruelty. His pity is not sentimentality. He continues, when the moment comes from judgment, by definition, it is beyond appeasing or postponing. When he comes again, time's up. that there's not going to be an earthly kingdom in Jerusalem. Why would Christ swap an earthly throne in Zion for his heavenly throne? The idea is nonsense. There's not going to be a secret rapture. We don't have time to discuss that this morning. But there's no second chance. Christ will come to judge the quick and the dead, and when he comes, that's it. So in light of that, I say in gentleness of the meekness of Christ, in love for your souls, do what this psalm tells the kings of the earth to do and its subjects. Kiss the sun. It's not like the Pope's ring, where if we kiss the Pope's ring, well, then everything will be okay. This is a homage done to the Lord Jesus Christ, the great high priest of the church and the only priest we need. And if we pay homage to him, if we kiss the sun, then we will be safe and at peace with God. through the forgiveness of sins, a clean slate and a fresh start and a new heart and a life that never ends. Kiss the sun. Kiss the sun. It's fascinating that when Peter and John were released from jail and the church gathered to pray, The church in Acts chapter 4 didn't quake or tremble in its boot at the gag order that had been placed by the priests who ordered the apostles to desist and stop spreading this good news of Jesus because it is good news. It's the best news. What do they do? Well, instead of panicking, keeping stum. Knowing that God had exalted Christ, they prayed, considered their threats and continued to preach and the church grew and grew and grew by his king and dominion and power. So, in closing then, as we reflect on these verses in this psalm, as we move into the gateway and beyond it into the rest of the Psalter, it kind of frames our expectation of the kingdom. This is the kind of kingdom we're called to. We're called to take up our cross, kiss Christ, and follow after Christ. And if we think about early church history, which saw a white gospel wave wash over the continents on the face of the earth to turn a dark map clean and bright. The anti-God sentiment was put out at pentecost. And then the Dark Ages returned at the enlightenment of Europe. And if we ask, is the age of the Gentiles, is it time up for that? We don't know. But we're called to this until he comes to claim the territory which is Christ's by right as we repent and believe and serve the King of Kings. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for this word of encouragement and this word of warning. We know that it's a good thing.