Good morning. Good morning. I bring you greetings from Christ Reformed Baptist Church, who's about an hour into their service now, so the mice can play now that the cat's away. Amen. It's good to be here this morning with you all. That little fellow bird, he made us feel very welcome. I think that was his name come right up and just shook her hand and he welcomed us. So we sense a very kindred spirit here. I'm joined today with my family, my wife Jessica, Our oldest daughter, Lily, and our middle son, Nolan, and my little daughter, Naomi, who is technically five years old, but if I use her in the middle of a sermon illustration, she turns four and sometimes six, but she is technically five years old, for those who wanna know. Would you open up your Bibles, please, to Psalms chapter two. Psalms chapter two. Thank you, Brother David, for that opening prayer. I sense already that the real sense of our time together today is focused on the object of the gospel and the mediator of that gospel, the Lord Jesus Christ. And really, that's the theme of my message today, too, and that's who's the central figure presented to us in this Psalms. So open up your Bibles, please, to Psalms chapter two. I always come with way more paperwork than what I need, so you never know what might happen. Follow along as I read. The word of the Lord says, why are the nations in an uproar, and the peoples devising a vain thing? The kings of the earth take their stand, and the rulers take counsel together. against the Lord and against his anointed, saying, let us tear their fetters apart and cast away their cords from us. He who sits in the heavens laughs, the Lord scoffs at them. Then he will speak to them in his anger, and terrify them in his fury, saying, but as for me, I have installed my king upon Zion, my holy mountain. I will surely tell of the decree of the Lord. He said to me, you are my son. Today I have begotten you. Ask of me, and I will surely give the nations as your inheritance, and the very ends of the earth as your possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron. You shall shatter them like earthenware. Now therefore, O kings, show discernment. Take warning, O judges of the earth. Worship the Lord with reverence and rejoice with trembling. Do homage to the son that he not become angry and you perish in the way or his wrath may soon be kindled. How blessed are all who take refuge in him. Let's look at that last verse again. How blessed are all who take refuge in him. And may the Lord bless the reading, the hearing, and understanding of his holy word. Will you pray with me briefly? Heavenly Father, we do, Lord, now come to you once again. We thank you for the time that we have thus spent focusing on your glory through thy son, the Lord Jesus. And we pray, Lord, that we may now know something more about him as our king. as it has already been mentioned as our risen Savior, that we may find comfort and solace for our souls, Lord, as we are yet still here traveling on this side of glory. We thank you for this opportunity to gather together as your sons and as your daughters to worship you. Now we pray, O Father, that you would be with thy servant and help me, O Lord, to exalt Christ Lord, as he deserves. We bless you and we thank you. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. The title of my message that I'm presenting today is a king for troubled times, a king for troubled times. Knowing you as much as I do through your pastor, David, and knowing the community of Reformed Baptists, I'm not going to alarm you too much by informing you that the Church of Jesus Christ is in fact in some troubled times. We most certainly are. We have enemies of Christ and his authority and his truth from within the walls of the church. And we have enemies, of course, from outside the walls of the church that are pressing in upon the Church of Christ, who are wanting to dethrone Christ and his word and its authority and set up their own authority. Just this past week, I think I read something to where the United Methodist Church has finally, after years of deliberation, they've decided to split And ironically, the churches predominantly in the African country are the ones who are wanting to split because of the progressive liberal trajectory that the United Methodists in the United States are taking the denomination. For any of you who are doing the research, we find again and again that there seems to be a great deal of instability, we could say. amongst what has been traditionally conservative denominations. Not to name any particular, but the ones that have traditionally in the history of the Western world held up the banner of truth, you could say, the fundamentals of the Protestant faith. And they are on shaky ground at this very moment. They are sending out the signal that they're unsure of where their trust really lies. And so being surrounded by this type of atmosphere as God's people, as Christ's church, sensing pressures as leaders in the church, could we perhaps be wrong in what we're thinking and what we're striving for and what we're pointing our people to? We could fall in a couple of ditches. One ditch that we could fall in is the ditch of presumption, thinking, you know what? Everything's fine. Everything's really OK. That's a few isolated incidents. And you know what? Things are pretty good. Or we could make the error of falling into the ditch of despondency, the ditch of doubt. And we can begin to question, can we not? the very thing that the spirit of God through his word has been leading and directing us in. And that's why, brethren, today I wanted to come to this passage in Psalms two because it's only one of many passages that's going to anchor our trust. It's going to anchor our faith. It's going to anchor our path that we're following on one objective truth. that Jesus Christ is, as we've already been talking about this morning, the risen king. It is not. We are not going to get through these these uncharted waters to a certain degree, these troubled waters that wish to toss us as individuals and as families to and fro. If we don't keep our eye upon the king, So I want us to here look together at Psalms chapter 2. Psalms chapter 2, most scholars agree that this was penned by King David under divine inspiration of the Holy Spirit. But additionally, and even more authoritatively, the Apostle Peter credits David with the authorship in Acts 4.25. And in its historical, or we can say in its literal sense, what we have here is a song of David. And he's expressing that his kingdom as being anointed by God to rule over, that it's being assailed. You picked that up very quickly in the first three verses. It's assailed with a vast multitude of powerful enemies. But it's a song of not pessimism. It's a song that even though that the enemies are raging upon this kingdom, they're not recognizing my authority as a king. Even though that is the case, it will be perpetual because you noticed it was upheld by the hand and the power of God himself. Now, although this is undoubtedly in the immediate sense on the surface being presented to us as a song pertaining to David and his reign as a king. It's important for us to recognize that the biblical interpretation of the apostles and also the post apostolic church fathers, they authoritatively teach us that this Psalm, in fact, most of the Psalms is pointing to Jesus, King David's greater son. And as we're going to see today, Not only is it pointed to Christ, but there's a part of this psalm where Christ is speaking directly through David to his people, which is an intimate aspect. This idea of biblical interpretations as seen by the apostles as regarding to who this psalm is about comes most clearly to us in Hebrews 1, verses 1 through 5. Don't turn there. I'm just going to read it. But it gives us a sense that the apostles, when they looked at this psalm, they saw it referring to Jesus. God, after he spoke long ago to the fathers and the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in his son, whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom also he made the world. And he is the radiance of his glory and the exact representation of his nature and upholds all things by the word of his power. When he had made purification of sins, he had sat down at the right hand of majesty on high, having become as much better than the angels, as he has inherited a more excellent name than they. For to which of the angels did he ever say, and he quotes Psalms 2 verse 7 here, you are my son, Today, I have begotten you. Now, many other instances of the apostles and the early post-apostolic church fathers, they could be cited to demonstrate that this is, in fact, in the literal sense, pointing to a kingdom time, which David arraigned, but also in an extended sense, a typological sense, pointing us to another king, and that is Jesus. And thus, I believe that the only proper understanding for God's people to truly be edified in the times of trouble that we exist in today is to look at this psalm teaching us, as Christ's subject, something regarding what an old, early English particular Baptist, Samuel Pierce, once says, as describing the one true king mediator, Jesus. who yields a universal and unmatched scepter over his church, the world, and in fact, over all things visible and invisible. And so then with all of that stated, the psalm in front of us, it presents overlapping meaning. It is true in one sense of speaking with reference to King David as a consecrated and a commissioned mediatorial king, as he is representing the nation of Israel. However, on the other hand, we must also to seek to know something of the certain rule and reign of David's greater son, the promised seed, the Lord Jesus Christ. For those of you taking notes, this psalm really outlines itself quite organically. Verses 1 through 3 are shown as something of the enemies of the king, the enemies that want to break the cords of authority. They want to put aside any attachment of divine restraint that is placed upon them by God. And then verses 4 through 12, we really have a three-part response of God. It comes to us in three parts, verses four and six, I'm heading as a response of confidence, verses seven through nine, a response of judgment, and verses 10 through 12, a response of mercy. So let's then look here at verses one through three to learn something about the enemies of the king. Really, the enemies of the king, they're the ones that are causing all of this trouble. God has anointed a king and he has, through his providence, placed this king without not any ease or pathway of comfort. David, as many of you know, had a very tumultuous time to get to the throne. And even after he was on the throne, had much trouble. And so the trouble that's being caused and being roused up is by those who, number one, do not want to recognize God's anointed king upon the throne. We see in verse number one something of the posture of the heart of the enemy of king. Why are the nations in an uproar? The King James renders, how do the heathen rage? We have in this first part of verse number one, uproar, rage, identifying them. And in the Hebrew, it carries with this sense of emotional agitation, uneasiness. There's something within the heart of this rebellious enemy of the crown that will not be settled. It's in a constant rage or it's in a constant uproar. Now, Immediately when you read that, you think that, well, someone who's in a rage, someone who has emotional agitation, someone who's, the text described as an uproar to someone who obviously I would look at and they would be out of control. They would be so filled with anger that they wouldn't be able to control or conduct themselves. And well, we all know that that can be true. Amen. Sometimes all we have to do is look in the mirror and we know that that's true. But something else is revealed to us about the posture of their heart, the real deep-seated aspect of why they're in an uproar, and what's going on within their heart in the second half of the verse, in the people's devise of vain thing. This causes us to kind of pull back just a little bit about what we might jump to a conclusion thinking about the man who's full of rage, this enemy that's consumed in an uproar. And the reason is, is because the Hebrew word that's translated in your Bibles as devise is the very same Hebrew word up in chapter one talking about how the people of God meditate on the law of God. And so we get a picture here of the posture of the heart of the enemies of the king, of being those who have rebellion deep seated in their heart. And instead of, you know, acting in out of control rage, in fact, it's a good translation, they're devising, they're plotting, they're planning. And beloved, that's truly the case in our own day and age. I think that the people of God today greatly underestimate this roaring, this raging, this plotting, this planning. What I'm trying to convey to you, brothers and sisters, is do we have the militant church mindset? Are we walking through the woods? as if there are those who are plotting and planning and raging against the things that you and I stand for, that you and I seek to raise our families under, seeking to point our brothers and sisters and those under our care toward. Do we fully appreciate it? Well, the prophet David here, he, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, is communicating that is their heart posture. As we soon see, we don't walk around on eggshells, but nonetheless, we want to know something of the truth of the enemies of the crown in which we are under and we are serving, brothers and sisters. Now, this posture of the heart, it comes out now to affect the posture of their bodies. Look in your Bibles at verse number two. These enemies we see in the text are described here as the kings of the earth. And so we know now that the kings of the crown are the enemies of the crown, the enemies of the authority who God has placed there. It's not just a little small local band of people. In fact, it's broader than that, verse 2 is showing us. The kings of the earth, they take their stand and the rulers, some translations translate it, the leaders take counsel together. And so this posture of the heart we see in verse 2 now is affecting the posture of the body. There is the same Hebrew word for stand used in Exodus when it's describing Moses and how God told Moses to go and to stand before Pharaoh. And so this posture of the heart of the enemies of Christ now is causing them to take action and not just sit around in a dark room, plot and plan and think about ways that they can try to dethrone the authority or work against the authority or sabotage those who are supporting the authority. No, now we know that their posturing of their heart, the devising of their plans, it's taking action now. And they're standing. It's a sense of defiance. It's a sense of crossed arms, puckered out lips, and I'm not going to move type stand here. The kings of the earth, they take their stands. The old authorized version says, the kings of the earth have set themselves against the anointed. Brothers and sisters, how is it that even within the people of God that we can come with the objective rule of God's word, and we can place it before one another as we seek to grow and to sharpen one another, and we could say, no, you can't practice that, or you can't adopt that sort of epistemology or way of thinking. It contradicts the clear preaching and the clear teaching of God's word. And what do many people do? Unfortunately, they'll set themselves up against the anointed, against the authority as it's revealed in his word. Well, this is the posture of the heart, which takes manifestation through the posture of the body in verse number two. And we notice also in the second half of verse number two that it's against the Lord, yes, but also we want to be careful to notice that it's also against his anointed, against his anointed. All of this really is kind of showing us that the makeup of man, his heart, his will, his body, the faculties of his body, you could say it's the ontological makeup of man. It's his being. He has an inward man and he has an outward man. And now what we see in verse number three is this ontological expression of this enemy of Christ, this enemy of the truth. You see now that his will and now that his body who's taking these actions are going to come together and express itself in verse number three. What do they say? What are these enemies of the crown? What do they express as originating from the wells of their heart? Verse number three tells us, let us tear their fetters apart and cast away their cords from us. I believe what verse number three is showing us, brethren, is that the posture of the heart, the posture of their bodies, this ontological makeup of rebellion against the crown is seeking to do something in verse number three that's two things. The first thing is to tear the fetters apart. Fetters are simply things that restrain. Fetters are put into place to bridle, to hold something in its boundaries. And the enemies of the crown, they don't want the fetters. They want to be free from any restraints. A lot of times the catchwords in our society today is liberation, freedom, Those are the catchwords of those who don't want the fetters. There's a second thing. Not only is there restraint from authority, restraint from divine appointed authority, but you see in verse number three that there is also a desire to destroy, cast away what's called the cords. Cords in a lot of ways is seen as something that attaches something to something else. And so these enemies of the crown, not only do they defy the crown, not only do they defy God's anointed one, not only do they not want any restraints from the anointed one upon their lives, upon their societies, upon their laws, et cetera, et cetera. They don't want any attachments to it either. It really saddens me oftentimes when I know of someone who particularly is going through a dark valley in their walk with the Lord. And I watch them and they'll make a couple wrong moves. They'll make a couple wrong choices. And instead of coming to the very house of God, the people that love them and want to come alongside them in the word and be guided by their pastor and to be guided by those who love them, they quickly want to cut off any cords, any attachments. Maybe some of you have experienced this. You've been cut off from a Facebook friend or, you know, someone has deleted you out of their phone book. And what is that? That's a cutting off of the cord. I don't want you to know what's going on. The enemies of Christ, brethren, all around us today, they are expressing a great desire to destroy any attachments to his crown. You read about it day in and day out. And so now, lest we be left here in this reality which we all exist in, these times of trouble with these enemies identified, let us look now to God's response. And in it, find courage, brethren. Find hope. May you be lifted up in understanding who it is that sets upon the throne. His first response comes in a response of confidence, verses four through six. He, the Lord, who they have set themselves up against, in verse number two. He is the one, it says, sets in heaven, and he laughed. I love this phrase, because it reminds me of where we were just at in our church in the book of Genesis, when they were building the Tower of Babylon. And many of you remember the text says that God came down. And we have the privilege of exploring that text and understanding, little ones, when God came down, it wasn't because God had to come down. He didn't know what was going on. The text presented it that way so that we would understand that God is high and lifted up, that God is the sovereign creator over all things, young ones. And he came down in an expression to show that man is small. That man is nothing and insignificant when it's compared to his authority, his power. And I believe that's really what we're seeing here. The spirit of God inspiring the prophet David to communicate this sense of confidence where God, the one that they've actually set themselves up against, he sets in the heavens and it gives us this anthropomorphic language. This language is if God has vocal cords and he laughs and he laughs. I don't, I have in my mind, we have a brother at our church who has a very distinct laugh. I don't know if there's a brother here who has a distinct laugh. But when I read that, I think of his laugh because you can recognize his laugh from all the way across the room. And no doubt when God sets in the heaven and he laughs at this foolishness of these men trying to rebel against him, I had imagined that his laughter, if I may use that language to continue with the sense of the text, is like thunder throughout the chambers of heaven. He laughs, the Lord scoffs at them. The idea is that he's looking down and he sees just how really ludicrous all of this is. These ants, you could say. Young ones, it's like little ants trying to set up something against a big human foot. It's not going to work, is it? But you see, we go back to verse number one. It originates with this blindness in the heart, this posture of the heart. And there is some capability of doing something. And so the kings do it. But God looks and he laughs. And you know what? Verse number four, to encourage you in something. Right now in our times of trouble, whether it be in the context of what I've described or maybe it's in your family context, look at verse 4 and see that God does notice. God is still there in the midst. And in fact, the actions of these men cause him to laugh. And I believe that's important for us because sometimes when we're in the thicket of the battle, and brethren, believe me, I look at this church and I think, wow, God's really blessed this church. We're much smaller than this church. And sometimes we're in the thicket of that battle. We can think that God's not there, but he sees the workings of these enemies and he laughs. So he's noticing we need to be consistent with the word and the sacrament. We need to be faithful, following the leading of our crown. and our King, the Lord Jesus, he sees, he knows. And look what else we see in verse number four. He will respond. Then the text says in verse number five, then he will speak to them in his anger. God's not going to sit idly by the side forever. He will move in his own perfect timing. The church, I believe right now, is being greatly pruned. It's being greatly tested. It's being greatly matured. And God's going to speak to them in his anger, and he will terrify them in his fury, saying, but as for me, I have installed my king upon Zion, my holy mountain. All of this is an expression of God about what he has already done in the most immediate sense with King David, but also in an extended sense what he has already done through his son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Now this is where the text gets absolutely beautiful. I've looked at this text before, but I've never noticed this until I really started Just digging down deep into it, we have here, and it's interesting because in verses seven through nine, in the second section of his response, I'm calling it a response of judgment, because look at verse nine, how it ends. The thought, you shall break them with a rod of iron, you shall shatter them like earthenware. But don't miss, in the context of God's expression or his response of confidence, he comes to verse number seven, And he starts to describe this really beautiful inter-Trinitarian dialogue, if you will, that's taking place in eternity past. So it is as if you and I are peering into eternity right now. And we're seeing a conversation just like we witness in the Garden of Gethsemane between Christ and the Father. But here it's even more unique. And more fascinating because it's like we're peering, he's allowing us to peer into eternity past in a conversation. And all of this ought to excite us. All of this ought to well up within us a great sense of joy and a great sense of surety that the king who's on the throne now, the king who rose from the dead, it was decreed from eternity past that he would be. Look at verse number seven. I will Surely tell of the decree of the Lord. Now, verses four through six, it was as if God was speaking directly. And here we come back to verse seven. And someone is saying, I will surely tell of the decree. I read in John Gill, he's really good on this. He said that there's some ancient extant manuscripts from the Chaldean manuscripts that say, I will surely tell of the covenant of the Lord, the decree of the Lord. He said to me, you are my son. Today, I have begotten you. Now, in one sense, of course, this could be applied to King David and David's reciting the covenantal transaction that took place between him and the Lord in 2 Samuel 7, 14. When the Lord said this, referring to King David, I will be his father and he shall be my son. If he commit iniquity, I will chasten him with a rod of men and with stripes of the children of men. But my mercy shall not depart away from him as I took it from Saul, whom I put away before thee." But now we must ask here, is there any evidence from the rest of Scripture that helps us to consider ultimately what is being referred to here? Turn your Bibles to Acts 13. Acts 13. so that you see what I believe, beloved, we have in front of us is Christ speaking to you and me. Acts 13, verses 32 through 33. I very rarely have people jump around on the Bibles in a message, but when I saw this, I said, oh my, I hope that everyone's hearts are just lifted up by this realization of who we have speaking to us directly as his church today. Now here's Paul preaching a sermon, and it's in the context of Christ's resurrection. Jump down to verse 32, because this is really the meat of it. He says, We declare unto you glad tidings, how that the promise which was made unto the fathers, God hath fulfilled the same unto us, their children, in that He raised up Jesus again, as it is also written in the second Psalm, where you and I are at today, where we have our eyes fixed upon today. What did He say? Thou art my son, this day have I begotten you. And thus we confirm yet again from the mind of God as revealed in the scriptures that the birth, the purpose, the life, the torture, the death, and as you have been focusing upon today, the resurrection of Christ was declared. It was declared in order that His glory would be manifested. And upon that resurrection mourned, that this triumphant King Jesus, which we have insight back here in Psalms 2, verse 7, this dialogue coming to us. You have the Father looking at the Son. Imagine this intimate this intimate relationship, this intimate expression that you and I are given privy to. It is if the father is looking at the son in this eternal council with this redemptive plan all laid out in front of him, knowing what it was going to cost him, knowing what it would take in order to be the king, knowing what it would take to be able to reign and to rule over a people. He says, You are my son. Today I have begotten you. Now we could get lost all day just in that last verse, couldn't we? I see some of you wanting to do that, but we can't go down that rabbit hole. But what we can see here, what we can acknowledge is that there is this eternal relationship that exists between the father and this anointed king, and that his kingship was given to him an eternity pass, and even more precious than that, as you and I are in these troubled waters that I opened up with at the beginning of the sermon, we see in verse number eight, the father tells his son, in this relationship, in this work, in this commission, he invites him to expand this kingdom. Look at verse number eight back in Psalms two. Ask of me, And I will surely give the nations as your inheritance. Some translations have nations translated the heathen. The authorized version says, I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance. Now, beloved, let me ask you, what happened after Pentecost? What happened after the Spirit of God came and the fullest measure and power? What happened, brother? what Christ's kingdom went to all of the nations. And it's still growing today, dear sister. What a blessing it is to see these young ones in our midst today. Christ's kingdom is expanding. Christ's kingdom is expanding through our feeble efforts of trying to raise them in the truth of the law and the gospel. Our feeble efforts, brother, to try to preach the truth of the gospel to the surrounding community. He's still building it today. And so, yes, we may have a tendency to fall in that ditch of despondency, that ditch of doubt, that ditch in times of small things. But we come here and we see that there is a surety. There is a certain relationship given by Creator, Lord God, Yahweh Elohim, a covenantal Lord, God of all power to his son. And he invites the king. He invites his son to ask of him to give him the nations. And, you know, as the great mediator today, that's what Jesus is doing. Perhaps there's someone here today who's a spouse, and you're here alone. We have a dear brother at our church, and he's a spouse who comes to church alone. And we're lifting up his wife on a weekly basis, a daily basis in our private devotions. Perhaps there's a mother or father here, and you have a wayward child, and you're lifting them up in prayer. Do you not see in verse number eight, you're not alone? You're not alone. You're coming to your great and high mediator, the Lord Jesus Christ, and you're asking him, oh, Christ, expand your kingdom, expand your border. Do it in the life of my loved one. Do it in the life of my co-worker. My friend Jorge, who I work, I work in Mesa in construction, and we lift up Jorge and his family often in prayer. And I told my family just last week that I had a wonderful time. The Lord opened up a door, and we go through this every six months, me and Jorge. Every six months, he seems very open to talk about the things of religion. He seems very open. He comes from a Roman Catholic background. We had a two-hour conversation. You know, he never heard of Martin Luther. You know, he never heard of what Protestants are. He just has never heard these things. And we think we come into contact people as reformed churches, right? And people just know this stuff. You would be absolutely amazed how many people have never even heard the gospel, or they have a very perverted, twisted, skewed view of the gospel. Oh, look here in verse eight. Look here in verse eight. The father is telling the son, ask of me and I will surely give the nations as your inheritance. And he continues to expand and he says in the very ends of the earth as your possession. I wrestled with what to give the heading between verses seven and nine because you see this wonderful covenantal language going on in its most immediate literal sense between Yahweh, Elohim, and King David, but much more, as we learn from the Apostle Paul, between the Lord, Father God above, and His Son, the Lord Jesus. But notice in verse 9, I think I rightly identified it as a response of judgment because he tells Christ, you ask of me to expand your borders. I will give to you the nations. I will give you the earth as your possession. And once Christ acknowledges this and he asks and he comes in verse nine, he commissions him and he says, or he charges him rather, you shall break them with a rod, could also be translated as staff of iron, and you shall, listen to this, language of judgment, this language of wrath almost, you shall shatter them like earthenware or as a potter's vessel. We're seeing in this sense that Christ is both a redeemer and a savior, but also we see in this sense that Christ is also a judge. This is the correct biblical balanced view of who the Lord Jesus is. Oftentimes, it can get lost in our societal context today, can it not? He's just of all love, and love is kind of twisted and turned into thinking that, you know, you have to tolerate everything, every untruth, even if it's an enemy of Christ. That's not true, brothers and sisters. Christ, in a very real sense, as we've been learning this morning, He did shatter all of the enemies at the cross, and most triumphantly, at the resurrection, amen? He did. I believe that's the real thrust of the verse. But if I may just do something, Pastor Charles, he can get on me later for doing it. If we understand verse nine, you shall break them with a staff of iron. A staff is the, it's talking about a shepherd hook staff. Notice in verse eight, the father tells Jesus, ask me and I'll give you the nations, the heathen, the Gentiles. You're going to break them with a staff of iron, with a rod of iron. So there is a sense in which the rod of iron is the sovereign will of God, that no matter how long you hold on to that cushioned pew, counting the cost of his lordship, counting the cost of his crown, his spirit is invincible. His rod is a rod of iron and it will reach forth and it will subdue your heart, not in a sense, as you read here, breaking you or in a sense of dragging you, but a sense of leading you to where you're willingly want to go in that path, in that direction. I love verses 10 through 12 because after He gives this response of confidence, after we see something of His glory as it's connected to the eternal decrees and matters and schemes of Almighty God the Creator, we are as a people in these troubled times sensing that we have a King, do we not? That is fit and perfect and certain for these troubled times. And we come to verses 10 and 12 and we see that his response now takes on a sense of mercy and of grace. Now, therefore, after the revelation of this king who God has in fact put into place, has in fact given provisions to, has in fact covenantally guaranteed a people, nations, the earth, He tells these enemies, who otherwise He doesn't owe this to them, brothers and sisters. God could just finish everything at verse number nine, but He doesn't. Now, therefore, O kings, show discernment. The Authorized Version says, be wise now. It's as if You've been told everything about the truth of the matter. It's as if authority has been reset, hasn't it? Through the prophet David, it has been spoken and declared truly where authority lies and who possesses all power and the distribution of authority. Now, therefore, O kings, you former divisors and schemers against the crown, Be wise, show discernment, take warning. The second half of the verse says, oh, judges are leaders of the earth. You know, there's much grace in giving someone a warning. There's many of you in here I see that have children and even the hoary heads, no doubt possibly you've had children in the past. And what did you do with them when you loved them and they were gonna cross out into a busy road, you gave them a warning, amen? It was merciful of you to extend that warning to them and let them know they're getting a little too close to the hot stove. Do you not see the mercy in our covenant Lord here? As he's telling the nations, he's telling these rulers, he's telling these people who have devised these things to be wise. Now, therefore, I've expressed and I've told you the truth of where you even get your authority from. Take warning, O judges of the earth and worship. Some translations have it as serve, verse 11. Worship the Lord with reverence and rejoice with trembling. There's much benefit to these enemies of God if they would come and bow the knee to the anointed crown. If they would come and bow the knee to the gospel, you could say. We see here that if they worship the Lord with reverence, a changed disposition of their heart, What happens? There's rejoicing in that. There's much rejoicing in that. And many of you here this morning, you've discovered that you've went through this trial. You've went through this valley. You had a heart posture that was against God's authority in your life. You had a body posture that was against any restraint that his divine authority went into place in your life. You wanted to sever all cords of any kind of attachment to authority. And let me ask you, now that you've come on the other side of that, was there much joy in that? Was there much rejoicing in that? No, there wasn't. It was a pretty miserable time. And this is really what we see in the picture of the prodigal son, do we not? But we see here when we come and we serve and we take upon him this divine cords of authority, this divine cords of love that he has for us as his people. We see that we can rejoice with reverence and trembling. Verse 12, do homage to the son. Some of the other translations say kiss the son. Many of you are familiar with that verse. It's such a graphic verse. In the ancient times, when a king come into the presence, his authority was recognized by people walking up to him with much respect and much reverence, and they would kiss the king. And this is the description here that the prophet is saying. He's telling all these enemies of Christ, now is your chance to come while there's still time and pay homage to the son, lest he come in anger and you perish in the way. You know, the more I kind of got thinking about it, I could have went a totally different direction with just exalting the king this morning and his authority that's set up in a place of troubled times. Really, you have the law and the gospel in this entire psalm, don't you? That's what we see here. There's still time, and this is our gospel message. We come out with the correct, balanced view of who Jesus Christ is. He is the ruler. He is the reigner. And he left all of his glories above to come and die upon a bloody cross for a nation, for a people. And we plead with Jorge, I do. We plead with the neighbors around this community to come while there's still time. We received some sad news. We get it immediately, and it's sad. A man, I'm 44, or I'm turning 44. Family always laughs. They say I never know how old I am, and sometimes I don't know how old I am. I turn 44 next month. We got news from our home church that a friend of the church, he's 45 or 46, he just found out he has six months to live. Six months to live. And he's gonna meet Jesus. He's going to stand before his creator. We get so caught up, do we not, in the busyness of life and the hustle and bustle of life? And so do your neighbors. They're just as busy. So are your coworkers. And I think, really, if we could just get people aside and just pause with them and really try to settle down and try to get them to see something of the eternal aspect of their existence. Their conscience is screaming at them. The Bible testifies to this. They know that this really isn't all there is unless they've been handed over to a reprobate mind. But you see, that's our warning call in the gospel. Tell them there's still time. Come kiss the sun. His his yoke is easy. His burden is light. He will grant you the forgiveness that you desire, that your conscience is screaming out. Tell him now while there's time, pay homage to him. Because when he comes again, he's coming with the rod of iron and judgment. For his wrath may soon be kindled. Expressing the idea that we have no idea when it will happen. That brother who we just learned about had no idea he was gonna get that phone call and be told he had six months. And I'm looking around, I have some peers, some guys, some contemporaries in here that are in their 40s. What if you were told that? We never know when our time's coming. But here's the beautiful message of why the gospel is considered good news. How blessed are all who take refuge in him. He is our refuge and our strength, the psalmist says elsewhere. In these troubled times, this is our king, who not only purchases us, not only does he defend us, but also he preserves us. That's what we see in the last part of the verse. We can find refuge in him. And so, in application and coming to conclusion, of looking at Christ as the high king presented for us in Psalms 2, knowing something of God's response in a three-part way, Brothers and sisters, we come and we see we have a king in troubled times that can give us refuge. We need to be anchored to his local church as so much as it is anchored to the word. Amen. And move forward as his church. I heard it in Pastor David's prayer. Don't look to the left. Don't look to the right. It would do us all good, I know it does me, to maybe take a media fast for a while. Because the prince and power of the air, I tell you, you would think that there's absolutely no hope. But soul by soul, soul by soul, Christ is expanding his kingdom. Be encouraged, brothers and sisters. Be encouraged that Christ is reigning, he is ruling. Don't look with the eyes of the flesh, look with the eyes of faith. Let's close with a word of prayer.